MUSIC
Dave Alvin: Chameleon musician
The guitarist is open to change because his songwriting is so solid
You pays your money, you takes your chances. Caveat emptor, baby. A band name is also a brand name, and when bands alter their sound, they often feel compelled to change their name as well. Unless you're dealing with Dave Alvin.
Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men
In concert: Hapa's Brew Haus in Kihei, Maui, and Anna Bannana's, 2440 S. Beretania St.
Time: 9 p.m. Friday (Maui) and 8 p.m. Saturday (Honolulu)
Tickets: $25
Call: (808) 870-6105 or 946-5190
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Alvin's blistering guitar attack and songwriting style helped put the Blasters onto Los Angeles' proto-punk scene a generation ago; his more introspective band The Guilty Men has brash country leanings; his participation in The Knitters is full-fledged country. But to Alvin, it's all interchangeable. The one unifying element is songwriting.
Usually, when we catch people on their way here, they're on cell phones and rush-rush-rushing. Alvin seemed to have his feet up on his desk, enjoying a smoke and feeling reflective.
He's bringing a stripped-down edition of The Guilty Men to Kihei, Maui, Friday night and here at Anna Bannana's Saturday. "Only been out your way once before, about three years ago. I was out there acoustic," recalled Alvin. "If I'm acoustic, I tend to go blues. Love that stuff, grew up on it. I'm basically a blues guy. "
The difference between the two bands is ...?
"Depends. It just depends" -- puff, puff -- "Sometimes nothing. Let me put it this way: The Guilty Men can sound more like the Blasters and the Blasters can sound like the Guilty Men. The main difference is, you know, it just depends on my mood. 'Cause if it's a dance crowd, they're making a lot of racket, I'm just as loud and fast as the Blasters ever were. I like to balance things out."
Is there a story behind the name Guilty Men?
"It kind of got stuck on us up in San Francisco. I used to do solo gigs and I would change the name of the band every night. That one got slapped on and it stuck for some reason. I'll live with it. I've heard better, I've heard worse."
DOES THE lineup dictate the style? Is there a Dave Alvin kind of song?
"No. Over the last 15 years, I've allowed myself to let the songs dictate the way they should sound, as opposed to trying to cram songs into any preconceived style. I grew up listening to Lightning Hopkins and Bob Dylan and Jack Elliot and Woody Guthrie as much as Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins. That's all the same music to me. Some notes are louder than others."
It comes back to the blues?
"It's what I grew up doing, sneaking into clubs to see. And that's sort of my base. That's my base. If you give me a guitar and ask me to play something, that's probably what I'll play, but as a songwriter, I'll make use of everything. You know, old English ballads or country songs or whatever. My influences are all over the place as far as songwriting influences. A good song is a good song."
So what makes a good song?
"I have no idea. I used to know and now songwriting has become so subjective. For example, someone will tell me, you gotta go get so-and-so's record. She or he's the greatest songwriter in the past 20 years. I go out and get the record, and I go, huh?
"Pop music, and roots music even, is so fragmented to the point now where there's no objectivity anymore. I don't mind that if they do it well. I've heard things by Snoop Dogg that I think are great songs and I've heard things by 'sensitive singer-songwriters' that I think are useless.
"WHAT'S A great song? 'El Paso' by Marty Robbins, 'Maybelline' by Chuck Berry. Anything by Robert Johnson. Most of Hank Williams. Those are great songs. I base things off that. Like this year there's a great record came out on Rounder by James Hunter ('People Gonna Talk'), sort of an R&B singer from England, guitar player-singer. Great songs -- sound like Sam Cooke wrote them."
Many of your songs are about average people; working stiffs, union organizers, the guy in the street ...
"Without getting on a soapbox or anything, I try to write about the drama in peoples' lives. My more reflective songs are about where dreams and reality meet. Most people don't get a voice. When I sit down to write I'm thinking of some sort of drama.
"I've got some songs that are fairly personal. On the other hand, I don't think that just because a song is personal makes it a great song. (For instance), I don't think Marty Robbins got shot in El Paso. It's like writing a play or writing a novel. If you're writing about a drug addict, you find that little drug addict inside of you and you let him dictate the song. If you're writing about somebody who's a hero, who triumphs over evil, you find that little part of you.
"We all have those characters inside of us and it's just being able to access them and make them realistic. We all have those little characters inside of us. Either that or I'm insane!"
Is songwriting real work?
"Usually I write in sort of a fever. I become Writing Guy for four months and anyone around me is just going to be really put out and I live in my other brain. Then I'm always changing them, much to the chagrin of people in my band. I change lyrics all the time. I rerecorded several songs. There are some songs that I've written that never change. Other songs, they morph into other things over the years."
DO you prefer to produce your own work?
"I've done both; I prefer working with a producer but as long as I trust him. Your face, as the artist, is pretty close to the canvas and you do need someone who's standing 10 feet back, telling you that you're out of proportion."
How about playing live?
"Oh!" -- puff, puff -- "it's fun, the gigs are. It beats workin,' it's what I live for. My favorite thing to do is play music live. Motels and interstates and truck stops and airplanes and all that stuff -- not so glamorous anymore, but I do still like driving from one place to another."
Uh, can't drive here.
"I can only afford to bring the drummer, the bass player and the other guitar player."
So is the size of the band flexible?
"A little. It's always bass, drums, two guitars. Maybe keyboard. Sometimes, plus an accordion player, who can also play acoustic guitar. Sometimes him, plus a harmonica player, plus a fiddle player, plus a doo-wop group. It just depends on how much the gig is paying. Unfortunately, I do think that way, but fortunately ... my accountants don't."
So could the Los Angeles Symphony become Guilty Men?
"If I ever get offered that much money to play a gig, I will."