Alejandro Escovedo Examines Love on New Album

After indulging an autobiographical streak on 2008's 'Real Animal,' Alejandro Escovedo fully intended to make a record about something other than himself. Unfortunately for him, that didn't happen on 'Street Songs of Love,' the Texas singer-songwriter's 10th solo album.

"Because of things that began to happen in my life, the album became a collection of songs about love, and love in every variation," Escovedo tells Spinner. "Every color, every emotional quality that love has, from rage to complete bliss. That's what happened."

So that part about not writing autobiographical songs this time?

"I failed at that," Escovedo says. "I was trying to step outside myself, but found that I couldn't. So the album really is about what was going on in my life, almost verbatim."

He's elliptical about exactly what that means, though he does allow, "I was faced once again with the toll that being a musician on the road has on a relationship."

As he did on 'Real Animal,' Escovedo co-wrote some songs with Chuck Prophet and again enlisted Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex) to produce. Escovedo and his band, the Sensitive Boys, recorded the tracks in 12 days earlier this year in a studio in Lexingon, Ky.

Escovedo credits the Sensitive Boys -- drummer Hector Munoz, guitarist David Pulkingham and bassist Bobby Daniel -- with the lively sound of the album, which also includes vocal contributions from Bruce Springsteen and Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter.

"You feel all that stuff within the grooves of a record, for sure," he says. "I can tell when a band's playing together and when it's not. We play as a live band -- we play 300 shows a year sometimes. That's a lot of playing, and we love to play."

'Street Songs of Love' is due June 29 on Fantasy Records.