Things to do: Alejandro Escovedo at the Heights Theater

All of a car’s mirrors and cameras help form the comprehensive visuals needed to know not only where we’re going, but what’s around us. Our brains and eyes seem to bounce fluidly from looking through the windshield, to the side mirrors, to the rearview mirror, all to keep us going, but none are designed to be the sole reference.

On Alejandro Escovedo’s latest album, Echo Dancethe distinctive artist uses a large catalog of previously recorded songs as markers, like the images in our mirrors, to pave the way for a new journey as he and his team completely reinvent the tracks using the originals as their point of origin.

Escovedo will perform in Houston at the Heights Theater on Saturday, June 1 with support from Will Johnson.

Escovedo mentally began the process of Echo Dance after hearing Calexico break down his song “Wave” on the 2004 release of Por Vida A tribute to the songs of Alejandro Escovedo and was part of a fundraiser held for Escovedo’s health issues at that time.

Hearing what Calexico had done to “Wave” planted a seed in Escovedo about how he could break down his songs differently and explore his own catalog with new ears.

While touring Spain, he began to dip his toe in the water of this concept by playing “Sensitive Boys” with only a pianist. “I thought it was amazing like that, so I knew I wanted to do that,” said Escovedo who included the track on Echo Dance.

Escovedo also knew that whatever he did, he wanted to do it in Italy with Don Antonio on keyboards and Nicola Peruch on guitar in their stage recording studio, a converted 15th-century stone mill overlooking a valley of vineyards and orchards.

“It was definitely a true collaboration,” says Escovedo, who previously worked with both on his 2018 album. The passage. Escovedo would introduce the duo to the original songs, three to four songs a day, and then the group would see where it took them.

“Nicola was usually the one who laid out all the rhythm patterns, and then we made sure the tempo was comfortable, the key was right and all that kind of stuff, and then we just recorded it. We were doing three to four songs a day so it was going pretty quickly.

The result is not a retrospective of Escovedo’s career but rather a rebirth where he and his team took the songs to a whole new sound drawing on European new wave dance and Escovedo’s past in New York, all maintaining that punk rock edge and sensibility that makes Escovedo who he is as an artist.

“That’s where I started,” Escovedo says of his punk rock roots in the ’70s, which saw him found The Nuns, his very first band, in San Francisco.

“We were really just a band by chance, in a way, because we just wanted to make a movie about the worst band in the world and we thought we could play the band because we thought we had the It sounded really cool and we didn’t know how to play it so we learned some chords. The movie never happened, but the band did.

The band’s success led him to move to New York where he worked with Judy Nylon, lived at the Chelsea Hotel, living and breathing the musical movement of the time fueled by post punk, glam rock and new wave .

“I walked into this world and this world was incredible and really this record kind of reflects that New York, Suicide, Judy Nylon, DNA, James Chance, everything that was around me that I was able to be a part of is really what this record is about.

Comparing all 14 tracks side-by-side from their original form to what they became Echo Dance is a fun listening exercise where fans can find similarities and celebrate differences.

It’s natural to wonder if the process might have made Escovedo squeamish at times, as people all get used to hearing things a certain way, especially when it comes to their own creations, but like anything, Escovedo felt very comfortable with the process.

“Looking back on the songs I had written and reflecting on my career thus far, making this record really opened the door to a totally new world of a way and a new way of singing and to present the songs. It was more than just trying to make old songs, it was really how do I get to a different place too and as uncomfortable as it was, sometimes it was definitely worth it.

Escovedo admits that he never went into this project thinking of making better versions of his songs, but simply doing something different that turned out to be exactly what his artistic soul needed to keep alive , create and regenerate enthusiasm for playing in the post COVID era. .

Escovedo describes his time at home during confinement as a return to his youth, spending time at home, listening to records, reading, relaxing with some weed, and playing guitar. Despite the respite from touring and a return to adolescent-like freedom, he began to wonder what was next.

“After COVID, I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do. During COVID, I had toyed with the idea that maybe I would never do it again. Maybe I’ve said all I needed to say, maybe I ran out of ideas, maybe I’m just not interested anymore. Then surely but slowly I started playing again and then I decided to break it all down and it was an adventure, so it kind of started the ball rolling towards this whole new thing that we were able to do.

He describes how the whole process of deconstructing his songs jump-started in his mind everything he was capable of doing with a smaller group. “Making his record was really exciting for me and really inspired me. It just made me want to play more. It’s been a while since I felt this good making music.”

Escovedo has proven over the years and in many cities he has lived in, from his birth in San Antonio to his time in California, New York and Austin, that he is capable of absorbing and producing so much sound different while opening a new path for Latin artists as well.

Coming from a large family of musicians who always encouraged him and his siblings to pursue music, even sitting down as a family to watch the Beatles take over the world on Ed Sullivan, it’s no wonder that Escovedo seems capable of writing a song that could fit into multiple genres while ultimately remaining a rock and roll poet.

“People have been very receptive to this sound,” he says of his Echo Dancing tour so far. “We always have a strong connection with the audience and at the same time my audience is incredible. They love music and they’ve supported a lot of things I’ve done. They have all been very, very patient and wonderful.

Alejandro Escovedo will perform with Will Johnson on Saturday, June 1 at the Heights Theater, 339 W 19th. Doors at 7 p.m., tickets $24-416.