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A singer, songwriter, and guitarist with a keen eye for the details of American life and a powerful and passionate performing style,
Dave Alvin helped to kick-start the American roots rock scene in the early '80s with the band
the Blasters, and has since gone on to a career as a solo performer, songwriter, producer, and sideman that's been as well respected as it is eclectic. Born and raised in Downey, California,
Dave Alvin and his brother
Phil Alvin were avid music fans since childhood, immersing themselves in vintage blues, country, and rockabilly sounds. Their passion led to them founding
the Blasters, who played roots-inspired rock & roll with the energy and fire of punk rock, in 1979. With
Dave as guitarist and principal songwriter,
the Blasters became stars in Los Angeles and earned a devoted fan following internationally after the release of their self-titled 1981 album for Slash.
Dave left
the Blasters after their 1985 album, Hard Line, and launched his solo career with 1987's
Every Night About This Time. Health problems sidelined
Alvin for a spell, but after
Dwight Yoakam scored a hit with
Alvin's song "Long White Cadillac," he returned to action with 1991's
Blue Blvd. He made a compelling acoustic effort with 1994's
King of California, while he doubled down on his interest in traditional folk and rural blues with a pair of critically acclaimed releases, 1998's
Blackjack David and 2000's
Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land. Through the 2000s,
Alvin moved back and forth between electric and acoustic projects, and in 2014 he reunited with his brother
Phil for
Common Ground: Dave & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy. He documented another memorable collaboration with 2018's
Downey to Lubbock, recorded with
Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
Born in Downey, California in 1955,
Alvin was raised by a family of music fans, and as teenagers
Dave and his older brother
Phil immersed themselves in blues, rockabilly, and vintage country sounds, collecting rare records and attending nightclub performances by the likes of
T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, and
Lee Allen. Like many fans, the
Alvin brothers wanted to play music influenced by the sounds they loved, and in 1979 they formed
the Blasters with fellow Downey residents
Bill Bateman and
John Bazz. Combining the revved-up energy of punk rock with an enthusiastic embrace of classic American sounds,
the Blasters became a sensation in Los Angeles and won an enthusiastic cult following across the United States and Europe. However,
the Blasters were unable to translate their critical respect and enthusiastic fan base into mainstream success, and in 1986
Dave left the band.
Phil Alvin continued to front various lineups of
the Blasters, and in 2002
Dave joined forces with
Phil,
Bill Bateman, and
John Bazz for a short series of
Blasters reunion shows.
While playing with
the Blasters,
Alvin had already displayed a broad range of enthusiasms with two side projects,
Chris D.'s literate goth-punk collective
the Flesh Eaters and
the Knitters, an acoustic ensemble in which
Alvin performed vintage country and folk numbers with
John Doe and
Exene Cervenka of
X. Shortly after leaving
the Blasters,
Alvin joined
X as lead guitarist after the departure of
Billy Zoom; however,
Alvin amicably left the group to work on a solo project shortly after the recording sessions for their album See How We Are.
Alvin's first solo album, entitled
Romeo's Escape in the United States and
Every Night About This Time in England, added a purer country influence along with a larger side portion of the blues; while the album was critically well received, it didn't fare well in the marketplace, and
Alvin was dropped by his American record label,
Columbia.
Alvin suffered health problems that sidelined him for a while, except for a wild tour with friends
Mojo Nixon and
Country Dick Montana as
the Pleasure Barons, which was described as "a Las Vegas revue from acts who aren't going to be asked to play Vegas." (A live album was released of a second
Pleasure Barons tour in 1993.)
In 1989,
Dwight Yoakam scored a hit on the country charts with
Alvin's song "Long White Cadillac," and
Alvin used the royalties to start work on his second solo set,
Blue Blvd. Released by the California-based roots-music label Hightone Records,
Blue Blvd received enthusiastic reviews and sold well enough to reestablish
Alvin as a significant artist in the roots rock scene. After releasing
Museum of Heart in 1993,
Alvin began to turn his attention to acoustic music with 1994's
King of California, and over the next several years
Alvin moved back and forth between hard-edged roots rock and more introspective acoustic material that still honored his influences (and allowed him to display a greater range as a vocalist). In 2000,
Alvin recorded a collection of traditional folk and blues classics,
Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. In 2004,
Alvin signed with the upstart roots rock label Yep Roc Records, which released his album
Ashgrove, a low-key but hard-edged set of blues and rock. It was followed in 2006 by
West of the West and a year later by
Live from Austin TX (a performance on Austin City Limits from 1999).
He changed his approach a bit with
Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, which was issued by Yep Roc in 2009, by recording with five women, and it seemed to revitalize him.
Eleven Eleven,
Alvin's first solo studio album of original material in some seven years, appeared in 2011, again on Yep Roc.
Eleven Eleven included a duet with
Phil Alvin on the tune "What's Up with Your Brother?," and in 2014
Dave and
Phil recorded a full album together for the first time since
Dave left
the Blasters;
Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy was a celebration of one of their first and strongest musical influences that found them both in strong form. 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. In 2017,
Dave joined forces with another roots music favorite,
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, for a concert tour. The two were pleased with the results and went into the studio to cut a duo album, 2018's
Downey to Lubbock.
When not busy recording his own music,
Alvin has also worked as a producer for several other roots-oriented acts, including
Tom Russell,
the Derailers, and
Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, and he has collaborated with rockabilly legend
Sonny Burgess. As a sideman,
Alvin has recorded sessions with the likes of
Ramblin' Jack Elliott,
Little Milton,
Katy Moffatt, and
Syd Straw. ~ Mark Deming & Steve Leggett