For Escovedo, Making Music Is a Genuine Family Affair

The title song of Alejandro Escovedo’s new album, “With These Hands,” depicts a world full of danger and cataclysm.

Run for cover, run for cover, the storm is breaking

Father, son, mother, daughter

The earth is shaking

Escovedo wrote the song for his father, and the music’s urgent gallop is provided by a percussion section comprising his brother, Pete Escovedo; Pete’s wife, Juanita; and three of their children--Sheila E., Juan and Peter Michael. Elsewhere on the album, Alejandro’s daughter Maya joins the violin section.

For Alejandro, “family values” is more than a campaign slogan.

“I think this album is about surviving with the strength of the family, trying to hold it together,” he says. “Once you reach 45, it can be a pretty lonely place if you don’t have the support of your family.”

Escovedo speaks from hard experience. The Austin-based musician’s nearly two decades in music have been marked by promise, disappointment and tragedy, but he’s managed to rebound, eking three intensely personal albums out of the experience and rebuilding his support structures--both musical and familial.

In addition to his solo-artist identity, Escovedo exercises his rambunctious rock ‘n’ roll side in a band called Buick MacKane, which plays tonight at the Dragonfly. The show will be a marathon for Escovedo, who will also play with two other bands on the bill--brother Javier’s Sacred Hearts and brother Mario’s Dragons.

Escovedo was first lured to pop music in the ‘60s, when he was growing up in Huntington Beach and his big brothers Pete and Coke were playing with Santana.

“They’d have gigs in L.A. and they’d come to Huntington Beach and visit,” he recalls. “They’d bring all their friends and bandmates with them and they’d drive up in these nice cars. They looked real sharp and they’d have beautiful women with them. So that always seemed pretty interesting.”

It took a while for Alejandro to make his move, and when he did it wasn’t into limos and dating starlets. After hanging out in Hollywood’s ‘70s glam-rock scene and developing a taste for such bands as the Velvet Underground, the Stooges and Mott the Hoople, he moved to San Francisco and ended up in the Nuns, a punk-rock band whose fame outdistanced its talent.

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He then teamed with L.A. punk luminaries Chip and Tony Kinman in Rank and File, an acclaimed “cowpunk” trailblazer. Next up was the Austin-based True Believers with brother Javier. Following two critically admired albums, the band broke up after being dropped by EMI Records.

“We worked really hard,” Alejandro says. “I thought that was a great band, and I loved playing with my brother, so it was a big disappointment when it didn’t work out. Once that happens it’s like you’re tainted. It’s almost like you have herpes or something--people dig you but they don’t want to touch you.”

Depressed, Escovedo retreated, taking a job at a record store and contemplating giving up music.

His return was cautious, involving reluctant solo performances and the casual formation of an improvisational collective that came to be known as the Alejandro Escovedo Orchestra.

His confidence and enthusiasm grew, but things didn’t go smoothly on the personal side. He broke up with Bobbi Levie, his longtime girlfriend and the mother of their daughters Maya and Paloma, and she later committed suicide.

Escovedo responded by pouring himself into the songs of grief and pain that would form his first solo album, 1992’s “Gravity.” The 1993 follow-up, “13 Years,” still had plenty of hurt while addressing themes of survival and moving on.

Now Escovedo and his wife, Dana Lee Smith, a member of the band Pork, have added son Paris to the brood, and the new “With These Hands” (on Ryko Records) reflects a more upbeat outlook. Still, Escovedo’s doleful vocals and his music’s plaintive edge evoke a familiar mood.

“Is it melancholy?” he wonders, fishing for the best description. “There’s optimism there. It’s like you’ve been beat up so many times, but you still want it to be OK. Like battered optimism or something.”

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Alejandro Escovedo will play with Buick MacKane, the Dragons and the Sacred Hearts tonight at the Dragonfly, 6510 Santa Monica Blvd., 9 p.m. $10. (213) 466-6111.