True Believers

"We’re a gang."
- Alejandro Escovedo

"Down from the depths of nowhere/ You know you'll hear them coming/And no one, no one can stop them/ The marching guitars."
- Daniel Johnston

"..they played like their original bond had only been frayed and set aside, never broken. The Believers swear there will be touring and new recordings. Lucky us."
-David Fricke, Rolling Stone (SXSW 2013)

"The Believers just flat blew the roof off the joint with a blast of '80s glam-punk that has aged supremely well. It was the first time I'd seen them since...1994. I am delighted to report that they've not lost a step."

- David Menconi, News & Observer, "On The Beat" (SXSW 2013) 

September 2013, five Austin bands and more than a thousand friends and fans gathered at the Moody Theatre, home of the Austin City Limits television series, to pay tribute to Brent Grulke, the creative director of South By Southwest, who unexpectedly passed away at the age of 52. 

Closing out Grulkefest were The True Believers, the band that Grulke had mixed sound for in their earliest days in 1984. The band fittingly gave their old friend a powerful sendoff by delivering a scorching set of three-guitar firepower that left the audience screaming for more, and the band feeling like they had some unfinished business to tend to. 

The five original members – Alejandro Escovedo (guitar, vocals, songs), Javier Escovedo (guitar, vocals, songs), Jon Dee Graham (guitar, lap steel, vocals, songs), Denny DeGorio (bass guitar, harmonica), and Rey Washam (drums) - had such a good time playing the songs that brought them into the international limelight in the late 1980s, they decided to put their respective careers on hold to do it again, showcasing at South By Southwest 2013. 

The Troobs are ready to rock. 

From mid-1980s Austin to coast to coast tours with Tom Petty and Los Lobos to two critically-acclaimed albums, the True Believers left a trail of scorched earth following their brief three-year run in the national spotlight. Washam left the band before they recorded their self-titled debut for Rounder-EMI, produced by Jim Dickinson. Their followup, Hard Road, produced by Jeff Glixman (Georgia Satellites) didn’t see the light of day for ten years after EMI was bought by Manhattan Records and their artist roster was lopped off. Rydodisc released both albums as a twofer in 1994 while their legend grew.

Now that legend becomes reality.
- Joe Nick Patoski

"Veering stage right, brothers Alejandro and Javier Escovedo bond over the loud, passionate glam of their rock 'n' roll heroes (Mott, Bowie, T. Rex). Veering stage left, the brothers intertwine with Jon Dee Graham through original, eclectic songwriting that draws from their shared Tex-Mex heritage (the brothers are sons of a Mexican immigrant, while Graham was raised on the Rio Grande border). With the soulful bass playing of Denny DeGorio and the thundering yet precise drumming of Rey Washam, the sound they created in the 1980s was fiery yet tuneful, snarling yet sincere, reckless yet focused. And when they reconvened in the fall of 2012, it was as if the years apart had intensified their connections to each other."

- Peter Blackstock