Dave Alvin: Out in California : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Since quitting the sibling-led Blasters in the late Eighties, little brother and singer-songwriter Dave Alvin has released seven solo albums and even earned a Grammy (for 2000's Public Domain); his eighth offering is his second live album in six years. Over three different nights in his native Southern California and with his gang of road hounds the Guilty Men, whether freewheelin' it acoustic or hard-drivin' it electric, Alvin's songs take trips down the known roads of barrooms and blues jams and some lesser -- traveled acoustic and improvisational byways. The title song and opener is a drunkard's paranoid lament set to a "Mystery Train" beat; riffin' on "Blue Boulevard," Alvin delivers a acoustic/spoken word picture postcard of SoCal's early Sixties cruisin' scene. Guitarist Rick Shea and fiddler Brantley Kearns alternately twang hard on the set's one new song, "Highway 99" (a tribute to Alvin's Bakersfield country music heroes Buck Owens and Merle Haggard). From revved-up rave-ups ("Wanda and Duane") to an old Blasters chestnut ("American Music") and a spare traditional piece ("All 'Round Man") Alvin's live act continues to play as mighty as the great Golden State about which he consistently sings and writes.

DENISE SULLIVAN
(May 28, 2002)