Buick MacKane – Big Shoe Head

I haven’t posted these guys in a couple of years. This one hits you from the start. With that title of the song, I had to post this one. I posted a song called The End by them in 2023, and this album has been on my playlist since. At the time, I couldn’t decide which song to write about, so I came back to this one. 

The member I have covered the most out of this band is an artist named Alejandro Escovedo, a Texas singer-songwriter who has been around since the early seventies. I’ve had their album The Pawn Shop Years on my playlist for a couple of years now, and it’s fantastic. The band was named after the T. Rex song Buick MacKane and I see the similarities.

Buick MacKane was essentially Alejandro Escovedo stepping away from the more polished feel of his solo work and into something looser and louder. The band’s album The Pawn Shop Years was recorded quickly, with a live feel, and this song fits right into that approach. Buick MacKane was a way for Escovedo to reconnect with the bar-band energy he came up with in earlier groups like Rank and File and The True Believers.

They formed in 1989 and began perfecting songs live that would be recorded and released in 1997. They mostly played around Austin, and they were a mix of garage and glam rock… and it sounds great. Escovedo had just broken up with his band The True Believers when all of this happened. They were popular in Austin, and they had some trouble getting people to accept Buick MacKane because they thought it would be The True Believers part two.

If you want to hear a 1990s rock album that sounds like the early seventies…this is the one. Instead of checking out a few songs…check out the album. I also included the album below on Spotify. 

Alejandro Escovedo – “People say, ‘Man, there aren’t bands like you guys anymore,’ and it’s nice, because there’s a lot of this kinda hippie stuff, and then every girl has a guitar and hates men. And we just wanna rock, you know.”

I can’t find a live version of this song…But The End is a great one as well. 

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

24 thoughts on “Buick MacKane – Big Shoe Head”

  2. Pingback: Buick MacKane – Big Shoe Head – MobsterTiger

  3. Not sure why Spotify wouldn’t list this with all the Escovedo music but they don’t. I have been following him on Spotify and had no idea about this album. Great stuff Max. Wish I had more time to listen to him.

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    1. Thanks Randy…oh it’s hard to find period. First of all…you search for Buick MacKane, the first thing you will find is T-Rex…and also Guns and Roses because they covered the T Rex song of the same name…it’s worth the search though.

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  4. Alejandro is a prize. This is going way back Max. That live cut makes me want to be there. My style. His quote is perfect for him atv the time. ‘Big Shoe Head’ has a place for me. My buddy had a “shoe head”. You gotta like that opening for the cut Max. The bass laying it down. What a great edgy rock n roll cut. Sounds like that “car engine’ Neil talks about, running really good then it it starts to get the knocks and tries to hold it together just before it blows. Love the wigged out guitar. He kinda likes that sound.

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    1. When I posted them before….it was between this one and The End…I wanted to get this song posted.
      Oh that guitar! That tremolo effect hooks me in from the start.
      Also in the background there is another guitar doing some wicked mean licks. An excellent rock song.
      Yea…Neil is talking about that risk…I love so much.

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      2. He is all over…listening to his stuff before this and after…he doesn’t stay in the same place long and I love that.
        You know…I think Ely and Dave Alvin played and knew everyone in that scene.

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  9. You got my attention with Buick MacKane and this cool-sounding album. While I’m aware of Alejandro Escovedo and have covered him a few times on my blog, I hadn’t heard of Buick MacKane. I’ve also yet to check out any music Escovedo played with those other bands you mentioned, Rank and File and The True Believers. Good stuff!

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