Alejandro Escovedo and the Sensitive Boys. 8 p.m. Oct. 21. $20-$22.50. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. N.E., Atlanta.
Alejandro Escovedo got a new lease on life when he overcame hepatitis C, which left him too weak to walk and had doctors believing he wouldn’t survive.
The albums Escovedo made during the first phase of his solo career drew acclaim, but since his recovery he has made what arguably are the four best albums of his 20-year career, including his new release, “Big Station.”
Beating hepatitis C has played a role in the music he’s made since the illness. “After I was ill, it really did give me the sense that, you know, I was aware of the clock ticking,” Escovedo said by phone. “And yet, at the same time, it was inspiring because it made me want to do more, experiment more, play more.
“I just had more joy in playing,” he said. “I have more joy in my music now than I’ve ever had, which I think is important.”
That joyfulness and eagerness to experiment is readily apparent on “Big Station.”
On his two previous albums — “Real Animal” and “Street Songs of Love” — Escovedo stripped back to a four-piece band, plugged in, turned up the volume and delivered high-powered, lean rock ‘n’ roll.
For “Big Station,” Escovedo teamed up again with two people who played major roles in “Real Animal” and “Street Songs of Love,” his songwriting collaborator Chuck Prophet and producer Tony Visconti.
But the band’s guitarist of 11 years left, and Escovedo parted ways with his drummer of 26 years.
“I did not want to repeat ‘Street Songs of Love,’” he said. “So with this one, Chuck Prophet and I, we wrote songs that were a little more rhythmic, I think a little more song-oriented than the last albums, and maybe with a little more atmosphere and space in the material. So I think it’s a great combination.”
“Big Station” features more acoustic guitar, texture and pretty melodies than the previous two albums, but there’s still room to rock on tracks such as “Man of the World,” “Headstrong Crazy Fools” and the title song.
Even with its space and texture, “Big Station” turned into a different kind of album than Escovedo initially envisioned.
“I really wanted, like, a more raw kind of sparse feel to the record, and it turned out to be really, kind of in a way, one of the most produced albums I’ve made,” he said.
Visconti, Escovedo said, helped flesh out some of the spare character of the songs he and Prophet had written and also was key in arranging and recording harmonies and horns that contribute to the haunting quality of “Sally Was a Cop” and “Can’t Make Me Run.”
Escovedo and Visconti avoided adding the kind of extensive orchestral parts that had been woven into earlier works. So concertgoers will hear songs much as they are on the album.
“I think that’s really important for me now,” Escovedo said. “I remember when I made my first solo record with (producer) Stephen Bruton, (the 1992 release) ‘Gravity.’ And that was one thing he always really impressed upon me, that you’ve got to make records that you can play live, because a band like mine, we’re all about being on the road. So we’re a live band.”
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