Daily PANAMANIA Tip Sheet: Alejandro Escovedo

By Kelli Korducki

You know what’s world-class? PANAMANIA’s music festival programming. Here’s our guide to the must-see free music shows of the day, every day, during the fest.

Alejandro Escovedo comes from a long line of musicians—his percussionist niece is longtime Prince collaborator Sheila E—but it might be Alejandro who’s the best known of the crew. The Austin, Texas alt-country crooner has been playing to critical acclaim for over three decades, and he’s welcomed his share of controversy too: in 2005, he refused to play his song “Castanets” after word leaked that then-president George W. Bush had the song in his iPod playlist. Escovedo vowed not to perform it again until Bush was either out of office or had removed the song from his hardware. (The moratorium lasted just under two years.) Sensitive cowboys (cowpeople?) and roots rockers, this is the show for you.

CORRECTION: 5:27 p.m. An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the artist Sheila E as Escovedo’s sister when she is, in fact, his badass niece. We regret the error.