POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Riveting Mix From Alejandro Escovedo

Anyone who describes one of his songs as the product of an imaginary collaboration between Bela Bartok and Iggy Pop had better deliver something special. On Friday at McCabe’s, Austin, Tex.-based Alejandro Escovedo delivered the goods.

Backed by an array of stringed instruments, the former rock ‘n’ roller--first as a member of the punk outfit the Nuns, then with L.A. cowpunk troops Rank and File and True Believers--walked a line that few before him have, between chamber music and rootsy Tex-Mex folk and rock.

The meshing of the two styles worked best the more complete it was: On the traditional-sounding rock and folk songs it was easy to be distracted by Escovedo’s limited, occasionally quavering vocals. But when the instrumentation took center stage, as on the glorious, elegiac opener “One More Time,” the ambition and scope of the songwriting were riveting.

Escovedo is careful not to let his choice of instruments confine him, however. His solo album, “Gravity,” credits two dozen musicians playing almost as many instruments, and at each live performance he reportedly uses a different configuration of accompaniment, from traditional four-piece rock band to Friday’s string orgy. It’s hard to imagine any grouping, however, intertwining as wonderfully as the violin, cello and two guitars dueling for attention at McCabe’s.