<tr>

<td style="background:transparent url(images/even-row-bg.png) repeat-x  0 0;">The background image</td>

<td style="background:transparent url(images/even-row-bg.png) repeat-x  0 0;">is not applied to our parent row,</td>

<td style="background:transparent url(images/even-row-bg.png) repeat-x  0 0;">but to us.</td>

</tr>

If the background image is one for the row, background-position would help.
Note : You should not use cellspacing for <td>s for this to work