Junior B. writes:
>to learn that he's applying for NEA grants on this thing strikes
>me as more than a little symptomatic.
>On first hearing about it, it sounds kind of like an Alejandro version of
>that Jo Carol Pierce twang opera about growing up in Lubbock (or wherever
>it was)....
In Escovedo's defence, I'd say first - he really means it to be a
full-scale stage production. It's not just an album or a concert or
something. Why is it less legit for him to get a grant than anybody else
doing a production?
Second, when I said it was about "his family" that didn't mean his nuclear
family. It's several generations back, and meant I think to be about
Mexican-American experience - and music - in a broader way. I think
Escovedo's a little over-earnest to carry it off, myself, but there's
nothing wrong with the concept. Cut the guy some slack, Mr. Bernard.
I'm more pissed off that the NEA withdrew their grant to Sub-Commandante
Marcos's children's book under congressional pressure than that they
validated a Hispanic twang musician's ambitions to stretch out a bit.
carl w.
