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World Records Newsletter – October 15, 2025

An Artist is Coming!

Hello there Ladies and Gentlemen –
Lawrence came by the record store today a bit down in the dumps. He wants to come to this Saturday night’s Alejandro Escovedo concert but he only comes to our shows with his girlfriend and she will only come if she already knows the artist. “She wants to now when you will bring Los Lobos back.”
Poor Lawrence. His girlfriend is locked in the past. And no longer can enjoy the exhilaration of discovering, at least for her, an AMAZING artist. Not a “new” artist by any stretch, just new to her.
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You know, it can be spiritually fatiguing to be in the Music Peace Corps in Bakersfield. And so it was SUCH A LIFT for my spirit when the record store phone rang this afternoon –
“Hello, World Records. Can I help you?”
“I hope so! I know it’s last minute. But is there ANY chance you still have tickets for this Saturday night’s Alejandro Escovedo concert?”
“Yes. We have tickets.”
“Oh thank God! My name is Leslie and I’m calling from Portland, Oregon. My husband and I went to the Alejandro Escovedo concert here last night. It was incredible! My husband is going to stay behind and watch the kids and said I should get on a flight to Bakersfield to see Alejandro and his phenomenal band this Saturday night!”
“You want a seat in the front row?”
“Wow! Really?! YES!!”
“Doors at 6:00 PM. Concert starts at 7:30. We serve a wonderful wood-fired pizza dinner before the concert. You want to come for that?”
“Yes! Sounds great! My flight gets in at noon Saturday. I will rent a car and come straight there. I want to see the record store.”
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What a GREAT boost to my spirit as the arrival of Alejandro Escovedo and his band approaches!

Search “Alternative Country” and up comes a list of artists that includes Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Corb Lund, Sturgill Simpson, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Son Volt, and an artist you can enjoy right here in Bakersfield this Saturday night – Alejandro Escovedo.
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Alejandro was born in 1951, part of a large family of future professional musicians that includes Latin jazz artists Coke and Pete who spent part of their careers with Santana.
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Alejandro’s path to becoming an “Alt-Country” artist is truly alternative. In the mid-70s he was an aspiring film student at Community College of Marin. He and another student set out to make a low-budget film about a struggling indie band that weren’t very good musicians. After tinkering with the film they decided to form their own band, for real, called The Nuns.

While the airwaves in 1975 were all about The Carpenters, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Captain and Tenille, Earth, Wind and Fire, The Bee Gees and such, Alejandro and his band mates were drawn to explore a less traveled, less safe, less predictable route.  Like The Ramones in New York and The Sex Pistols in London, The Nuns, were at the beginning and forefront of the San Francisco punk rock world. The Nuns were drawing big crowds in the Bay Area and went out to tour America.  While in New York Alejandro decided to leave the band and head to Austin, Texas with a couple of guys he met and form a new band – Rank and File, and mine a sub-genre of music loosely referred to as “cowpunk.”

Music history is full of stories of artists and bands that didn’t have much commercial success, but broke new ground, and forever inspired future artists who made it big.  Rank and File released three albums then split up.  But these albums inspired a generation of country artists who wanted more than the “cookie-cutter” formula, and rock artists who wanted country music to be part of their sound.
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After Rank and File Alexandro Escovedo released his first solo album in 1992.  What followed has been a remarkable career as he continued to release collections of songs that caught the attention of critics and fans who wanted more than what they heard on the radio. 

The authenticity of his music lends integrity to his lyrics. His songs are about real people quickly turning pages of their lives peppered with love, loss, dreams, and yearning. (Oh to have been a “fly on the wall” to witness the discussion between songwriters Springsteen, John Prine, and Escovedo!)
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In 1998, even though the decade wasn’t over yet, No Depression magazine, which focuses on American roots music, named Alejandro Escovedo “Artist of the Decade.”

In 2019 he was honored with the Townes Van Zandt Songwriting Award and in 2021 he joined Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, BB King, Los Lobos, and Rosanne Cash in the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.

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Alejandro Escovedo visits Bakersfield with his band this Saturday night in support of his 19th solo album, ‘Echo Dancing.’   (That’s a LOT of albums!)
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Bakersfield had an important musical period decades ago when local artists created a sound intended to be an alternative to what was coming out of Nashville at the time.  It’s going to be great to have this important alternative artist right here in Bakersfield to give us an evening pulled from an astonishing life and career!
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Leslie is coming all the way from Portland.
Hopefully you are able to come as well!  Pat

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