Riff: Alejandro Escovedo Wimberley Valley Arts and Cultural Alliance hit another home run last week with the appearance of Alejandro Escovedo at the Wimberley Players playhouse.
On the stage with Alejandro was the talented Gabe Rhodes, contributing substantial guitar licks and vocals.
Between songs, Alejandro shared the trajectory of his performing life with wicked self-effacing humor. For the people who clapped upon hearing the name of his first band, The Nuns, he quipped that they must not have actually listened to them. And when talking about his group Rank and File, which tried to combine the music of The Clash and George Jones, he said, “That was the worst idea ever.” With head down and throwing a glance backward from under his hat, he delivered each bon mott with deadly charm. The audience loved him.
He turned serious on his song, “Five Hearts Breaking” about a broken man who finds a woman named Hope “who had a smile that would make the Devil cry.” Her encouragement helped him carry on. Rhodes’ guitar solos on the song were beautiful.
In fact, there’s a current of melancholy beneath many of Alejandro’s songs. One of his five daughters was in the audience and he performed “Down in the Bowery” for her. His regret was palpable as he sang, “I hope you live long enough to forget what I taught you.”
Perhaps some of that lies in his father’s journey from Mexico to San Antonio. While his Dad was a larger than life character of many talents and skills, he left the family for long periods of time. At one point, in 1957 or 1958, he told us, his mother decided to pack up the family for California and never come back. His father caught wind of it and commandeered the operation, telling all 13 kids that they were going on vacation but in fact, they never returned home to Texas.
During the performance, he told us about a play he wrote for his father called “Five Men,” a story of five immigrants who left their homes and everything they knew for a better life. It explored, he said, the immigrant’s code of silence, the way men treated their wives, mothers and sisters, and the gratitude of their children because of their sacrifice. Melancholic, cryptic, wise and beautiful, the songs Alejandro gave us last week, coupled with his perfectly timed and diffident wit, bound him to his fans forever. As one of our “own,” it’s unlikely we’ll ever let him go.
Roam: Bolm Road Mural To celebrate her independence from Spain on September 16, Mexico celebrates “Diez y Seis de Septiembre” each year with celebrations not unlike any Fourth of July parade anywhere. For those of us who are intimate with this tradition, the parades, Folkloric dancing and the reenactment of the cry to freedom, or “El Grito,” are all part of the festivities.
Since missing traditional celebrations this year, my roam led me to the Govalle neighborhood in East Austin. The neighborhood was established in the 1850s by a Swedish cattle rancher who named it “Go Valle,” which is Swedish for “good grazing.” Tucked away in a tiny pocket of the neighborhood where Springdale Road and Boggy Creek meet, is a fine work of public art called the Bolm Road Mural.
Completed in 2022, the mural is best approached via Mansell Avenue and is one of the largest in the city. It was a joint project of the Govalle Neighborhood Association, a non-profit art organization called “Raasin in the Sun,” and was commissioned by the city of Austin’s Neighborhood Partnering program. The mural is beautifully painted with portraits of citizens who played key roles in the area.
One section shows three women under which the word PODER is painted. “PODER” in Spanish means “power,” but it’s also an acronym for a grassroots organization founded by three Austin women: Janie Rangel, Sylvia Herrera and Susana Almanza, who absolutely insisted on bringing environmental justice to their neighborhood.
In the bad old days of 1928, Austin drew up a Master Plan that redlined African American and Latinx residents to parts of the city where industrial facilities could develop right next to them.
Right out of an Erin Brockovich story, residents learned that their groundwater had been contaminated by something called the Tank Farm. The Tank Farm, developed in 1948, was a petroleum storage facility operated by six major oil companies. Together, the tanks held more than 10 million gallons of fuel — most of the fuel for the Austin area — in massive tanks a stone’s throw from homes and within a mile of seven schools.
For decades, residents were sick with chronic illnesses. Over time, they would learn that pollutants, as well as carcinogens benzene and methyl tert-butyl ether, had seeped 15 feet into the ground and migrated into Boggy Creek.
In 1992, PODER sponsored a “Toxic Tour” to show politicians the illnesses that residents were suffering. It galvanized support for the neighborhood. Subsequent investigations revealed wrongdoing by Exxon, the Texas Water Commission, the Texas Air Control Board and other agencies. To add insult to injury, the Travis County Central Appraisal District devalued more than 600 neighborhood homes, many by 50% or more. Residents were forced to bring a civil suit.
In April, residents brought their concerns to the Austin City Council and pleaded for the shutdown of the tank farm, but no formal action was taken. Things got ugly when five of the six oil companies launched a media campaign saying there was no link between the tank farm and the illnesses of the local residents.
PODER, activists, residents and the media continued to apply pressure and by late 1992, five of the six oil companies pulled out. The last one to go was Exxon. Fierce legal wrangling continued as cleanup began. Fifteen years later, in 2008, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the oil companies had finished the cleanup, but some pollution remains because the state does not require companies to remove it all.
Behind an afternoon roam to the 900-foot Bolm Road Mural is a true David and Goliath story of exceptional grassroots action. Two of the staunch Govalle activists, Gilberto and Jane Rivera, are depicted alongside the women of PODER. It’s amazing what ordinary citizens can do. For the full story, go to austintexas.gov, Watershed Protection, storymaps.arcgis. com.
Rave: Kin Faux For six months, I’ve been hoping to see the band Kin Faux live in a venue close to home. This week they turned up on Gruene Hall’s calendar for this Saturday at 9 p.m. If you like Charlie Daniels-style fiddling, this band is for you. From San Antonio, the band is composed of Rico Gonzalez on fiddle, keyboard, guitar and vocals; Ross Barkey on Bass and vocals; Jakey Black on guitars and vocals; and Dan Currier on drums. They’ve been racking up awards like Texas Country Music Awards Band of the Year in 2021, the Texas Regional Radio New Band of the year in 2022 and Texas Country Music Awards Single of the Year in 2022 for “Wild Horses.” Tickets
