I have a lot to say about Dave Alvin. All good. I want to save my other thoughts for subsequent posts. Know this, I have all his records (I think) and while Dylan is of course in a class by himself (maybe with Joni Mitchell), Dave Alvin is in the same class as Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, John Prine, Lucinda Williams or anybody else you might want to add to the list of the best songwriters of our time who are not Bob Dylan. Simply put, he is one of the living masters of Rock & Roll. The one quibble with Best of the Hightone Years is that some of my favorite Hightone moments were not selected. Nothing from his excellent live record, Interstate City, such as the remarkable medley of Berry’s Promised Land, Alvin’s Jubilee Train—originally penned for the Blasters—and Guthrie’s Do Re Me. Other Alvin-Penned tunes, like Andersonville—the best song ever written about the infamous Confederate POW camp—are likewise neglected here. I quibble because I love.
What we do get is a solid representation of an important period in one of the strongest voices in music, and one that is under rated and overlooked. What if Jackson Browne recorded at Chess and Bukowski (after reading a lot of Steinbeck) wrote the lyrics? The answer would be Dave Alvin but that only partially explains Alvin. In Alvin, you hear blues, country, folk and rock and roll and what you hear are the connections between the genres. The songs almost always depict characters usually from the underclass and trying to hold on.
A version of is signature tune—4th of July—he has several, including the phenomenal X version recorded from his short stint during the end days of that under-acclaimed group. I love this song. A guy comes from work, the argument that he was having with his wife has not ended, ‘outside I smoke a cigarette alone, Mexican kids are shooting fireworks below,” goes the chorus. “hey baby, it’s the 4th of July, we forgot all about the 4th of July.’
Abilene is simply remarkable tune and has that California country rock feel Alvin does so well. “There’s a greyhound bus, leaving the great northwest.” On this bus, is an ex-stripper trying to stay clean. She has a troubled past of an abusive father (get drunk and hit her hard), neglectful mother (high on pills and talking to God) then boyfriends who seemed to do the same. She is going to meet some other guy in Austin, where she hopes maybe won’t be so mean, her mistakes are “like her beautiful tattoos, these are memories she can’t loose.” There, waiting for her, feeling old, remembering every lie he’s told. But there’s another town—she’s never seen,. I’m never sure if the woman’s name is Abilene, or if Abilene is the town is from, or going to. What happens though is she stays on the bus, breaking the pattern of abusive relationships, or maybe she decided to head back home and make peace with her family. Whatever the outcome, she doesn’t meeting the guy. And, it’s not even a certainty that the guy she is meeting, which she hopes, “maybe won’t be so mean.” is a bad chap. She decides on her confidence, she becomes empowered. Abilene is the only love song where the happy ending is that the two wind up apart.
Often in Alvin’s world the two winding up together is not the best outcome. There is so much truth in that aspect of relationships, you fall in love and life doesn’t work out and what do you about the love? Evening blues, a quiet sad song about—I can only relate it to Raymond Carver—where it’s obvious they are not communicating and he is watching her, she has taken a shower, her hair is wet, and she is making a cup of coffee and she’s thinking about someone else.
A great Alvin theme is California, but this is not some Hollywood version. In fact, it’s a Steinbeck version. The Okie Disporia of the 30s, these are the off spring of the folks who came to California for the promise, the promise was broken and their children and children’s children are making the best of it. Dry River, an unreleased version here, has the narrator remembering the rivers that have been paved over, the orange groves that used to be here. California Snow a divorced man, away from his kids, remembers saving some migrant worker, although some have died.
Sometimes Alvin does California Noir. Out in California—an unreleased studio version, with some devastating soloing—where a woman is taking off her skirt for somewhere else and the one she left is going psychotic—out in California, they’ve killed all the Indians, they’ve shot all the grizzly bears. I saw Alvin open up for Dylan in the 90s and he killed, and this song made me really take notice and I bought the Interstate City the next day. He channels Jim Thompson with this blistering rocker.
The Blasters had a great rhythm section and when Alvin rocks out, which he does, there’s the rhythm section right there with him. An excellent guitarist—up there with the likes of Robbie Robertson if truth be told—he just does some killer lead. Some of his best rockers are here. Haley’s Comet, a chuck berry invoking song about the death of Bill Halley—the comet part, get it. Old Bill goes to a pancake house, the waitress has no idea who he is, drinks whiskey, stares into a window, drinks whiskey from a bottle, in a town where Texas town where there’s ‘no moon shining on the Rio Grande, a truck of migrants passes by, the juke box was broken in the bus depot.” A kind of last picture show type of place. Bill goes back to his hotel rooms, where he has the shades all drawn and he remembers hitting the stage. No mention of rock around the clock. You don’t necessarily have to know who Bill Haley was. The song is really as much about those pancake houses than Bill Haley. It ends with the cop coming in, ordering a “couple of cups to go,” and tells the waitress about just finding a body of some guy, “who was famous long ago.” Friggin great drumming in the rhythm section on this number. The other great rocker—again, we hear some chuck berry inspired licks propelling this tale about Wanda and Duane, who have moved into together, some real dark humor—ole Duane is thinking of jumping out the window and not saying good bye when he goes. Another rocker, up-tempo blues this time, with some great horn riffs, is Museum of Heart, a funky lament for lost loves.
Great song writing, great guitar playing, but the other attribute is Alvin’s voice, which is a deep baritone, only slightly gravely—he was the voice of Jack Daniels radio commercials I heard once and indeed, this voice might know a thing or two about Whiskey. Public Domain, which won a Grammy, was his record of old folk song covers and is represented hear by his stunning rendition of Shenandoah, which shows off the baritone. I love any version of this song!
The old folk song, The Cuckoo is a duet with Katy Moffatt (who I am not familar with) from a record Alvin produced for Hightone, I guess showing off his producing capabilities. There are so many versions of this song and it has never done much for me. This version is better than many but in my humble opinion, The Cuckoo is one of those folk songs that folk singers love a lot more than folk music listeners.
Thirty Dollar Room, is gut bucket blues and a statement of the artist. It’s a song about empathy and empathy is the driving force behind Alvin’s inspiration. The narrator is in this cheap room and imagines the down on the luck denizens that have passed through here, the planes flying close to the roof.
Alvin moved to Yep Roc records a few years ago—I don’t think this was quite the music industry cataclysm of a Prince leaving Warner Brothers so it was an easy story to miss on Entertainment Tonight. I don’t believe I’ve even seen a review of the Best of the Hightone years in Rolling Stone. Especially from artists who’ve been on these smaller labels, a “best of” compilation basically distills the oeuvre to that point. This record is more of a survey—Alvin though really doesn’t have a bad cut, his records are dang near perfect, and the Yep Roc ones are even better. Nothing to distill down. All wheat, no chaff. The unreleased stuff here makes it worthwhile for fans like myself, and a brilliant introduction for those interested. Those interested will be anyone who loves rock and roll and great songwriting.
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