Those Jangly Eighties, Vol 6: Rank And File & True Believers

[For the background on this series, see here.]

After a brief respite, the jangly eighties series is back. Today's episode features two former bands of legendary Austin guitarist Alejandro Escovedo.

Rank And File started with a bang in 1982, but soon fizzled. Their first record, Sundown, is worth hearing. In a review that will entice many regular readers of this blog, All Music Guide decscribed it as "a gem of tuneful, Byrds-ian pop, with a healthy dollop of Gram Parsons and Merle Haggard to boot." I don't know if I would go quite that far, but it's definitely an enjoyable listen. Try these two tracks:

Rank And File – Amanda Ruth.
Rank And File – Rank And File.
(buy album).


Not long after the release of Sundown, Escovedo quit Rank And File to form the True Believers with his brother Javier. The True Believers were a loud, three-guitar band. (I know how loud they were from first-hand experience.) They quickly became all the rage in Austin, and beyond, in the mid-1980s. Unfortunately, they couldn't capitalize on the buzz. Their first record, released on Rounder, failed to capture the raucous nature of their live show. It's now out of print.

The True Believers' "second" album, which was to be their major-label debut on EMI-America wasn't released at all. As explained in the All Music Guide:

"The second album was a far stronger representation of the True Believers than the debut, but shortly after it was completed, EMI-America's parent company decided to fold the label into another affiliated company, Manhattan Records, and much of EMI-America's roster was dropped, including the True Believers. The second album was pulled from the release schedule only two weeks before it was scheduled to ship, and the label's asking price for the master tapes was far more than the band could afford to pay."

The music business can be cruel. Years later, after the band broke up, the True Believers' debut and the lost second album were finally released together on a single CD called Hard Road, but that too is now out of print.

Here are one standout track from the debut and two highlights from the lost second album:

True Believers – The Rain Won't Help You When It's Over.
True Believers – She's Got.
True Believers – One Moment To Another.
(buy album).

Alejandro Esovedo's greatest critical success has come as a solo artist. A favorite of mine is this song from his 1992 solo debut album, Gravity:

Alejandro Escovedo – Five Hearts Breaking (buy album).

Just for fun, here is Whiskeytown's cover of The Rain Won't Help:

Whiskeytown – The Rain Won't Help You When It's Over (mp3). (This comes from the Those Weren't The Days bootleg, which you can find at Broadcaster House.)