COURTESY OF DAVE ALVIN
Dave Alvin's not getting older, he's getting better.
Blasting music
stereotypes
In a career spanning 20 years, Dave Alvin has fronted the roots-rock band The Blasters, put in a brief stint with the iconic Los Angeles roots-punk band X, and now enjoys a solo career. Since the 1980s, he's managed to pen such classic tunes as "American Music," "Little Honey," "Border Radio," "Jubilee Train," "Fourth of July" and "Blue Blvd," but he believes you haven't heard the best of Dave Alvin yet.
You can get a taste of his current and past hits when he performs this weekend in intimate concerts on Oahu and Maui. His only accompanist will be lead guitarist Rick Shea, from his Guilty Men band.
Dave Alvin with Rick Shea
>> 7:30 p.m. today at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center McCoy Studio Theater. Call 242-2787 for ticket information.>> 9 p.m. Saturday at the Hawaiian Hut, 410 Atkinson Drive. Tickets are $20 advance and $25 at the door. Advance tickets available at Borders Waikele and Ward Centre, and Hungry Ear Kailua. Ledward Ka'apana will open.
"Rick is a real good guy that I knew long ago before asking him to join my group," Alvin said by phone from his Los Angeles home several weeks ago. "He's a veteran California folk and country musician. He's more country, I'm more blues, so he plays differently than me. But he's a great musician and he's been very patient with me."
Alvin made his reputation with The Blasters, a band famous for the battles between Alvin and his brother Phil. Time has mellowed both to such an extent that the two actually shared a stage recently.
"We did a reunion tour of Europe this year for couple of weeks, and when we came back to the states, we did the last show in Orange County, which was recorded for a joint DVD/CD release that'll come out sometime next year.
"The original idea behind the reunion touring was that Rhino Records had earlier released a set of complete Blasters recordings, and I agreed to do some shows with the band to promote it.
"Another reason I wanted to do this was that I missed everybody. I knew we'd be a better band now than we were back then, and we proved that. I always thought I was the weakest link, in my view, but I got a little better."
Whether he's touring with or without a band, Alvin always enjoys sharing his music with an audience. "Playing solo is a little different, in that you don't get that physical release from playing with a live, electric band -- I guess it's a little more cerebral," he said with a chuckle.
ALVIN'S LATEST album, "Out in California," comprises a selection of acoustic and rock 'n' roll songs recorded live with his band at select SoCal gigs.
Out of the eight albums Alvin has recorded over the years under his own name, 2000's "Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land" is his most widely recognized, garnering him a Grammy award the following year for Best Traditional Folk Album. Alvin plans to release his next album sometime next month, "all originals and a little more electric than the last few solo records I've done."
The disc features new arrangements of American folk and blues tunes passed down through generation to generation, their origins hazy at best. These are songs gathered from some innocent, idyllic past, frosted over with sentimental nostalgia a la Stephen Foster. As Alvin says in his liner notes: "Our folk songs are about love, jealousy, anger, longing, revenge, despair, survival and hope for the future. They're hard, sad, rowdy, tender and joyous images of who we were, where we come from, who we've become and who we still are."
They were recorded during a particularly tough time, Alvin said.
"I did that album more for my mental health," he said. "My dad was ill and dying at the time, and I was looking for comfort, something to hang on to, so I turned to the old folk songs of our country.
"I thought this might be as good a time as any to do my own arrangements of them and record them.
"When you get down to brass tacks, I'm a blues player playing American folk music," Alvin stated. "Once I'm dead and gone, I want to be remembered for the songs I wrote. But when I sit down and play the guitar, even if I'm doing a Bulgarian folk song, I'm going to play it like a blues guy. On my records, I tend to jumble genres and styles. I'm just another white-boy blues guitar player."
BESIDES acknowledging the songs of America's past, he also has done his share of participating on albums that pay tribute to his favorite singer-songwriters -- his work on the 1994 Merle Haggard tribute, "Tulare Dust," in particular.
"That took a lot of work to coordinate, what with 15 different artists, including myself, doing Merle's songs." Alvin has also taken part in Waylon Jennings and Johnny Paycheck tribute albums. The tribute trend has been so strong of late, that "only a few artists are around that haven't been 'tributized.' "
But, through it all, Dave Alvin will keep his music blue-collar real.
"I always wanted to stay honest with my music. My brother and I were always drawn to blues and traditional music, thanks to the influence of our older cousins.
"There's a long history of California roots music that most people are unaware of. Merle Haggard was born and raised here, there's Buck Owens in Bakersfield, a whole rockabilly scene and West Coast blues from guys like Charles Brown, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, the transplanted T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner.
"I remember when we were little kids, we would sneak into bars to see these guys, guys who would later become mentors to us. And when you're 14 to 15 years old, that becomes a big chunk of who you are."
It's a different reality of what most of us consider the glamorous SoCal lifestyle.
"The same could be said about Hawaii," Alvin said. "I'm sure people, like, in Pennsylvania, think all Hawaii is Don Ho and 'Hawaii Five-O,' hula skirts and Waikiki Beach. But you know it's other things, just like I know California is more than 'Baywatch,' movie stars and swimming pools.
"Places like Beverly Hills and Malibu only make up a small area -- you drive five miles inland and it's a whole different world."
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