Bedtime for demonology

>> Alejandro Escovedo ain't as bummed as you think he is

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

It seems the hard road is now the fast lane to success. Just listen to the radio, where prefabricated angst and gloom are spreading like a rash. Don't get me wrong--it's not that spilling a few tears in your beer is such a bad thing. I mean, Billie Holiday? Patsy Cline? Nick Drake? No questions there. They just had that certain twinge in their voices that rang with such honesty it could rip your heart right out.

Alejandro Escovedo's songs do the same thing. He's one of the best American singer/songwriters to come along in a while and can easily take up residency alongside the aforementioned party-poopers. There's just something in that voice, that slight quiver that lets you know he isn't hiding behind anything. Especially when he sings lines like, "Don't love me too much/ I don't think I can take it" on "Follow You Down," from his new record A Man Under the Influence.

Escovedo can easily recreate the hard times and mire himself in the muck, but something in that voice harbours healing power as well. "The music itself has carried me through a lot of difficulties in life," he says. "I consider it important to be honest about what I'm writing about and that's probably been a bit to my disadvantage at times, but I think that's just who I am and I don't really think I'll ever have a shortage of material."

Even Escovedo's own record company casually tosses off buzzwords like loss, longing and regret in his bio, but he says it is wrong to typecast him as a rather glum fellow. "My songs are about a search for love and family and all those things and that is not always a pretty picture, but I think a lot of my songs have a sense of hope in them. My songs have always been cast as depressing but I think if there is any message on any of my albums it is about survival."

Underlining the fact that he's not just a sad sack, he makes fun of me when I ask him if the demons he wrestles with in his songs are there on a daily basis. "Well, yes," he says. "Sometimes they sleep with me at night, too--and they can be real bed-hogs as well." Okay, Mr. Funnypants, would you prefer to be known as a guy who likes to run through water sprinklers and play with puppies?

"I'd like to be known as a guy who runs through water sprinklers while playing with puppies and, uh, cats too. I'm not a depressed guy. I mean, I'm happy most of the time. People seem to think that it's really attractive to be obsessed with this darkness but they don't see me when I'm at a baseball game, or smoking a joint with friends."

At Club Zone on Tuesday, may 15, 8pm, $17.25