As the big-voiced frontman of
the Blasters during the early '80s, singer/guitarist
Phil Alvin spearheaded the underground's new embrace of American music traditions ranging from blues to rockabilly to country, predating the roots rock movement that bloomed in the years to follow. Born March 6, 1953, in Los Angeles,
Alvin and his younger brother
Dave were raised on the music of
Elvis Presley,
T-Bone Walker, and
Big Joe Turner; together they formed
the Blasters in 1979, borrowing the name from
Jimmy McCracklin's Blues Blasters.
Their debut LP, 1980's
American Music, created a major buzz among insiders for its gritty, rootsy sound, and their self-titled 1981 follow-up even cracked the Top 40. However,
Dave Alvin left
the Blasters in 1985, and
Phil returned to grad school to pursue his master's degree in mathematics and artificial intelligence. (He later earned his Ph.D. from UCLA.)
Alvin resurfaced in 1986 with his solo debut, Un "Sung" Stories, which featured cameos by everyone from
Sun Ra & His Arkestra to
the Dirty Dozen Brass Band; he reconvened
the Blasters a short time later, and the group continued with a revolving lineup into the following decade. A second solo effort,
County Fair 2000, appeared in 1994, and featured members of the
Alvin side project the Faultline Syncopators, a traditional jazz combo. After years of live work with a variety of different guitarists,
the Blasters struck a deal with Private Music to cut new material, but for a variety of reasons, the 1997 album
At Home was never released.
In 2002,
Dave and
Phil Alvin reunited the 1980 edition of
the Blasters for a handful of shows, which stretched into several months of touring due to demand from their fans; the reunion produced two live albums,
Trouble Bound and The Blasters Live: Going Home. In 2004,
Phil Alvin finally released a new
Blasters album,
4-11-44, which featured
Phil on lead vocals, Keith Wyatt on guitar,
John Bazz on bass, and
Jerry Angel on drums. While
the Blasters were still
Phil's band, he and his brother
Dave briefly reunited in the studio to sing a duet on "What's Up with Your Brother?," a track on
Dave's 2011 album
Eleven Eleven.
Bill Bateman replaced
Jerry Angel on drums for the next
Blasters release, 2012's
Fun on a Saturday Night, but a European tour in support of the release was scuttled when
Phil, who had been fighting a viral infection with antibiotics months earlier, was hospitalized in Spain when he suffered severe breathing difficulties. He fully recovered following an emergency tracheotomy, and in 2013
Phil and
Dave began work on their first album together since
Dave left
the Blasters. A spirited tribute to one of their greatest influences,
Common Ground: Dave & Phil Alvin Play & Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy was released in the summer of 2014. The
Alvin brothers supported
Common Ground with a concert tour, and in 2015
Dave and
Phil returned with a lively set of electric blues,
Lost Time. ~ Jason Ankeny