Escovedo recording new album with John Cale

11/23/2005 8:44 PM, Reuters
Barry A. Jeckell

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Alejandro Escovedo, whose career has been sidelined since 2003 by a battle with hepatitis C, is working on an album that is being produced by Velvet Underground co-founder John Cale.

Due early next year, the as-yet-untitled set will be the inaugural release under a new deal with indie roots-rock label Back Porch Records, home to such acts as the Neville Brothers, Charlie Seton and John Hammond.

Escovedo began his career with the San Francisco-based act the Nuns, co-founded the cowpunk band Rank and File and recorded with his brother Javier as the True Believers. An intense bout with hepatitis C led to his collapse after a 2003 performance in Phoenix, preventing him from touring and recording.

In the meantime, friends and colleagues banded together to stage a series of benefit concerts and release last year's "Por Vida: A Tribute to the Songs of Alejandro Escovedo)" (Or Music). The two-disc set benefited a trust set up to pay costs associated with his treatment. Lucinda Williams, Cowboy Junkies, the Minus 5, Steve Earle, Son Volt and Los Lonely Boys were among the contributors, as was Escovedo himself.

Escovedo has two California dates scheduled in December, including a San Francisco show with Los Lobos, and has a handful of January dates on the books that are likely the start of full U.S. tour.

Here are Escovedo's confirmed tour dates:

December 15: San Jose, Calif. (Germania Ballroom)

December 16: San Francisco (The Fillmore w/Los Lobos)

January 5: Alexandria, Va. (The Birchmere)

January 6: Annapolis, Md. (Rams Head On Stage)

January 7: Philadelphia (World Cafe Live)

January 27-28 Birmingham, Ala. (Workplay Theater)

Reuters/Billboard