VARIOUS ARTISTS Por Vida Cooking Vinyl ****

Subtitled "A tribute to the songs of Alejandro Escovedo", this cracking double CD is a direct result of a bunch of people coming together to raise funds to pay the medical bills of this renowned Austin-based Mexican-American musician, who was hospitalised in April last year with Hepatitis C. Escovedo, largely unknown over here, was about to travel to Ireland to make his Irish début at the Kilkenny Rhythm & Roots Festival. This collection shows just what we missed.

Escovedo's songs are buried deep in classic American and British rock culture, yet they have a looseness and an honesty that makes them more at home in a roadhouse than on an FM dial. The 31 artists who volunteered for this project, mostly from the alt.country fraternity, clearly empathise with the man and his music and they turn in some rivetting performances.

Opening with Lucinda Williams's gritty, regret-filled Pyramid of Tears, the first CD weaves through a compelling series of loose-fitting rockers and reflective ballads featuring the likes of Charlie Sexton, Jennifer Warnes, John Cage, Steve Earle, Calexico and Howie Gelb, before closing with the unlikely string setting of Crooked Frame from The Section Quartet. The second CD is no less interesting, with veteran British rocker Ian Hunter kicking off the action in snarling style with One More Time. Writer Dave Marsh offers a gushing sleeve note in which he opines that Escovedo "ranks with the greatest artists of our time". Is he that good? This collection makes a strong case. www.alejandroescovedo.com Joe Breen