Published: May 28, 2008 09:59 am         

All About His Father

Alejandro Escovedo the featured guest at Susanna’s Kitchen

Eclectic Austin-based musician Alejandro Escovedo will be the featured guest at Wimberley’s Susanna’s Kitchen May 29.

Susanna’s Kitchen is a monthly coffeehouse hosted by the Wimberley United Methodist Church typically on the third Thursday of the month in the WUMC fellowship hall and is open to the public. Tickets are available at the door, $15 for adults, $5 for children and child care is available.

Pie from Wimberley Pie Company, organic coffee from Hill Country Natural Foods, and hot tamales are always on site. Doors open at 7 p.m., with music starting at 7:30. This is a smoke-free, alcohol-free venue. Wimberley UMC is located at the corner of RR 12 and CR 1492.

Proceeds largely benefit the artist, but all other profits for this 2007-2008 season will be donated to UM Army of the Southwest Texas Conference. UM Army is a mission organization that works with high school youth through a one week mission camp to help low income people and families in Texas with home repairs and building needs.

This June, Escovedo will release his ninth solo album Real Animal. Real Animal is a collective journey through Escovedo's various musical incarnations from punk rock to string quintets and is as introspective as it is retrospective. Recalling the people, places and influences that helped shape his career, Real Animal represents the primitive aspect of Escovedo's music — the instinct, the urgency and a survivor mentality that fuels his musical passion.

Escovedo has had a varied and very successful career. In the late 1990s, he began developing a dramatic work, based on his songs about his father, with the Los Angeles theater company About Productions. The resulting composition, By the Hand of the Father, premiered to critical acclaim in 2000 with Escovedo performing his songs as part of the production. His last album, The Boxing Mirror, released in 2006 was produced by John Cale and traces Escovedo’s journey from the brink of death at the hands of Hepatitis C to renewed wellness and artistic creativity.

Escovedo’s music has been widely lauded by the media, appearing in several high-profile publications including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, USA Today, PASTE, HARP and Entertainment Weekly.

This spring, Escovedo will be doing select live performances along with guitarist David Polkingham. Together, they will pick their way through Escovedo’s vast songbook ranging from acoustic ballads to rock crescendos with an ease and a confidence only artists of this caliber could muster.

For more information call (512) 847-3109.

     

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