from rolling stone
This Texan of Mexican descent last recorded as the frontman for the True Believers; on Gravity, his musical progression leads him to explore the darker side of belief. The concern that unifies the album is faith – in rock, in religion, in others and in oneself – and what happens when it collapses. Within these songs of mystery and mortality, salvation may be a fantasy, but sin is all too real.
"So pour me a drink from a broken bottle, and fill my glass with dirty water," sings Escovedo, his quavery vocal offering a singular combination of strength and fragility. "What I’ve lost is gone, what I’ve gained has no name, and I’ll take my leave once more." Whether mining a Los Lobos-ish vein of soulful Southwestern elementalism on "Broken Bottle" and "By Eleven," rocking like the Faces on "One More Time" and "Oxford" or exploring uncharted territory on "Bury Me" and the climactic title track, he displays an art for rendering emotional and spiritual complexities through simple, graceful songcraft. Gravity abounds in everyday epiphanies, showing what truths become manifest when all layers of comfortable illusion are stripped away.
The spirit of musical discovery on this album offers revelations beyond Escovedo’s previous work (with the Nuns and Rank and File, as well as the True Believers) or family connections (his older brother was a percussionist with Santana; his niece is Sheila E.). As produced by Stephen Bruton, the arrangements feature an interplay between John Hagen’s cello and Marty Muse’s steel guitar that owes little to either chamber or country music, while elsewhere Bruton’s slide guitar slices dangerously through Bill Ginn’s honky-tonk piano. On the uptempo "One More Time" and "Pyramid of Tears," the vocal support of Lou Ann Barton offers hard-twang reinforcement.
Though the early selections initially sound too stylistically diverse to sustain momentum, the final four pull everything together. "Last to Know (Ballad of Buick MacKane)" is a love song of sorts to a band that is falling apart. From there, "She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore" and "Pyramid of Tears" explore the abyss on the other side of romance, with the concluding "Gravity/Falling Down Again" rising to the emotional transcendence of a Tex-Mex Astral Weeks. After so much of the music has equated pain with growth, the children’s laughter that ends the album suggests a rebirth that brings the song cycle full circle.
Gravity is available from Watermelon, P.O. Box 402088, Austin, TX 78704. (RS 640)
DON MCLEESE