By the time I discovered the “cowpunk” glory of Rank and File’s 1982 debut album Sundown (Slash), Alejandro Escovedo was already an artist whose music I held in high esteem.  My introduction to Escovedo and his music began in the late 90’s after he made a guest appearance on three of the songs from Whiskeytown’s Stranger’s Almanac in 1997.  Then his name popped up again in a big way when No Depression magazine named him their Artist of the Decade in 1998.  I bought my first Alejandro Escovedo record the following year when Bloodshot Records put out Bourbonitis Blues and I’ve been following his career both backwards and forwards ever since.

[photo:  Sundown back album cover /A. Escovedo on lower right]

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Escovedo’s first band of note found him playing guitar and writing songs in The Nuns, the Bay-area based punk band from the 1970’s that just so happened to open for the Sex Pistols’ final show at Winterland in 1978.    Alejandro would end up leaving The Nuns before they recorded their debut album in 1980 and his next stop would find him joining brothers Chip and Tony Kinman in their newly formed band Rank and File in 1981.  The Kinmans at the time were also coming out of a punk rock background having played in the L.A. hardcore band the Dils through the late 70’s.

Up until a couple years ago my entire Alejandro Escovedo music collection was made up entirely of his solo work beginning with his 1992 masterpiece Gravity and continuing all the way up through the John Cale-produced The Boxing Mirror in 2006.   I’d been on the look-out for Rank and File’s Sundown album for some time and when I missed out on Rhino’s re-issue of the band’s first two albums in 2003 (they only released 2500 limited editions) I had pretty much given up on finding it.  But then shortly after moving to Charlottesville in 2006, as I was flipping through a stack of used LPs in a new arrivals bin in a local record store, I found a copy in great condition and grabbed it immediately.  According to the price tag which is still on the front of the album, I paid six bucks.

In my mind Sundown ranks right up there with The Knitters’ Poor Little Critter on the Road (the Knitters featured both Exene Cervenka and John Doe of the L.A. punk band X, as well as Dave Alvin of The Blasters), Lone Justice’s self-titled debut, and Jason and the Scorchers’ Lost and Found in terms of its influence on the early roots of what would become the 1990’s alt-country movement.  And for the record, Rank and File’s debut preceded all of the albums listed above by a good three years.

At a time when the new wave boom was building and MTV was just beginning to influence the way music was delivered and consumed, Rank and File’s first album was forging a path that was well-removed from the mainstream.  After all there weren’t that many bands at the time who were bringing together a punk rock background with a love for country music.  And while Escovedo’s role in Rank and File was primarily as a guitarist, Sundown represents his first lasting contributions to a musical body of work that continues to this day.

In June of this year Alejandro Escovedo released his latest album Real Animal.  It’s his only solo album to-date I have yet to hear.  But if I don’t happen to pick up a copy of the album between now and the end of January 2009 I’ll still get a chance to hear the new songs live.  Within the last week or so Starr Hill Presents just announced that Alejandro Escovedo will be returning to Charlottesville.  He performs at the Gravity Lounge on Monday, January 26.  7pm.  Tickets are currently on sale now.  $20 advance /$25 door. [buy tickets].  In the meantime I think I’ll drop the needle once again on Rank and File’s Sundown, the album that first signaled the beginning of Escovedo’s status as an artist on the rise.

Watch:
Video:  Rank and File–”Rank and File”

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