'Echo Dancing' is an experiment in how to use the past to shape the future. By recording completely new and repurposed versions of songs from his past, Escovedo actually gets a chance to rewrite his own history. It's also an idea that pushes growth into the present,and asks an artist to see themselves anew.
"I always feel that a well-written song can withstand a lot of abuse," Escovedo says.
It is an area of creativity that the man has always honored. "Turning a past song inside out leads to discovery of new ideas you might not have understood about the song," he says. "Even lyrical refurbishing has proven helpful and effective. It's like interpreting your own work anew. The songs never seem to be complete. They are always evolving."
Click here to listen to the latest Alejandro Escovedo album 'Echo Dancing'
Alejandro Escovedo succinctly explains the new levels of artistic exploration he's undertaken on his new album. It's a unique adventure into recording new versions of songs from his past and approaching them as challenges to totally express what the music means to him today. Songs like "Bury Me" and "Castañuelas" while they were powerful in their original form several years ago, now announce themselves as highlights of Escovedo's long career.
They speak of an eternal world that lives inside so much of his music, like it was formed in a way that cannot age. There is something very permanent in the career of the Texas-born artist, an inner flame that is always there. It feels like it is a part of musical history that is rarely captured at such peak performance, let alone reappears with a new life. If the life of an artist is always to push ahead to leave what was done alone in favor of contemporary creations. Then Escovedo's basic concept of Echo Dancing is a revolutionary concept of high beliefs, that the past can live again as a reborn entity.
