Coming Attractions: Alejandro Escovedo

Excellent news on Alejandro from Pitchfork...

Good news: On May 2, Backporch Records will release The Boxing Mirror, Alejandro Escovedo's first new solo album since 2000. Even better news (in case you haven't heard yet): Escovedo has for the most part overcome the Hepatitis C that left him collapsed on a Phoenix stage in 2003.

Thanks to the generosity of family, friends, and fellow musicians, Escovedo has been able to fund his treatment and recovery despite his lack of health insurance. (The 2004 Escovedo tribute album Por Vida, featuring Lucinda Williams, Calexico, the Jayhawks, Son Volt, Steve Earle, and many others, sure helped.)

Now that he's back in the game, Escovedo has enlisted one of his more famous friends, John Cale, to produce The Boxing Mirror, which the pair recorded with Escovedo's touring band in Los Angeles late last year. The album will feature 11 new Escovedo songs, but has 12 tracks in all. If you just go by the story the tracklist tells, it looks like Escovedo had to settle a disagreement between John Cale and Larry Goetz (who, incidentally, worked on Cale's 2005 effort Black Acetate) by including both of the soundman's mixes of "Take Your Place".

Tracks:
01 Arizona
02 Dearhead on the Wall
03 Notes on Air
04 One True Love
05 The Ladder
06 Break This Time
07 Evita's Lullaby
08 Sacramento & Polk
09 I Died a Little Today
10 Take Your Place (John Cale mix)
11 The Boxing Mirror
12 Take Your Place (Larry Goetz mix)