Alvarado's stateside success with The Howl Sessions was just the beginning. The buzz on his critically acclaimed album and charismatic performances traveled quickly across the Atlantic. Howl received extensive airplay on France's popular Radio Dio, which chose the collection as one of the Best Albums of 2005. Alvarado was also the only American performer, and the only solo acoustic artist, who played at Radio Dio's 25th anniversary festival; following which he performed at a Large record and comic book store in St. Etienne. In the UK, he headlined The Porter in Bath and The Troubadour in London, a famed venue where Bob Dylan made his London debut. Howl received extensive airplay domestically as well. "Wish You Were Here (Postcards From Hell)" was featured on the second season of the PBS TV show Road Trip Nation.

On Let it Go, Alvarado draws on a lifetime of personal experiences, moving beyond the edgy religious and political commentary of his earlier works. In creating his "album about heartbreak," the singer has once again surrounded himself with some of NYC's finest. Playing on the record are guitarist Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, T-Bone Burnett, Sam Phillips), drummer Kenny Wollesen (Norah Jones, Rufus Wainright, Rickie Lee Jones), pianist Rob Burger (Beth Orton, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Wainright), and bassist Joe Quigley (Shawn Colvin, Lisa Loeb, Syd Straw).

"When I began Let It Go, everything that came out tapped into all of these intense personal experiences I've had in my life," Alvarado says. "The album explores the dynamic when things fall apart and the reality that follows. It's not about a specific person, but an amalgam of different people I've had relationships with over the years. When writing Howl, I was trying to get a lot of things off my chest about the way things were in the world, but with the current Let It Go, I'm addressing a lot of left-over emotions unresolved from my past."

Let It Go is not all darkness; the jangling, high-spirited "New York" is a celebration of the wildness of living in the city. "It's For You" has an uplifting, percussive groove that contrasts with the harsh reality of feeling numb after a relationship falls apart, while the softer, more reflective "Nobody Knows" starkly reflects the sadness one feels over missing someone when they are gone.

Anticipating the release of Let It Go, Alvarado is eager about getting back out on the road and touring the U.S. and Europe more extensively in 2008. "I'm an extremely private person, but there's something exhilarating about sharing my truest feelings with people through my songs in a live setting," he says. "When you make yourself vulnerable in front of people, they connect to you because they can relate to what you have to say. I think its instinct, people know the truth when they hear it."

Let It Go will be released domestically in April 2008.

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