The Blasters

The Blasters led the early-'80s American roots music revival, performing styles from rockabilly and country to blues and R&B. Brothers Phil and Dave Alvin (whose father was a labor organizer) grew up in the L.A. suburb of Downey listening to the music of Big Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Reed, and Elvis Presley. The brothers played in various bands and in 1979 they formed the Blasters, named after bluesman Jimmy McCracklin's Blues Blasters.

The group struggled for gigs around L.A. until championed in 1980 by the likes of X’s John Doe, rockabilly pioneer “Wildman” Ray Campi, and the Go-Go’s. (The Blasters would perform a similar service to East L.A.’s Los Lobos in the early ’80s.) When the Blasters’ first album, American Music, caused a buzz on the underground scene, the L.A. punk label Slash signed the band. The following year The Blasters reached #36 on the album chart. By then, the Alvins’ longtime hero, New Orleans R&B saxophonist Lee Allen, was a full-time member (along with fellow saxman Steve Berlin), which he remained until his death in 1995.

After a live EP in 1982, the Blasters tried to branch out on the critically acclaimed Non Fiction, with songs that broke from the rockabilly mold and explored themes of working-class alienation. For Hard Line the Blasters attempted a commercial crossover, enlisting John Mellencamp, who wrote and produced one song (“Colored Lights”), Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, and Elvis Presley’s former early backup singers, the Jordanaires. But the band’s momentum was soon shaken after a combative performance in Montreal by the abrupt departure of songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin, who immediately joined X [see entry]. (He had already appeared on an album by X’s short-lived acoustic-country alter ego, the Knitters.) He was with X for two years, long enough to appear on the band’s 1987 album, See How We Are (for which he wrote “4th of July”), before focusing on a solo career. Alvin’s replacements in the Blasters included, among others, Hollywood Fats (until his death in 1987) and then Smokey Hormel (Tom Waits, Beck). In the years since, the band continued to tour sporadically while Phil Alvin returned to graduate school, where he took a master’s degree in mathematics and artificial intelligence, later pursuing a Ph.D. in these subjects at UCLA.

By the mid-’80s, Dave Alvin had become active in L.A.’s burgeoning spoken-word performance scene, appearing on three spoken-word compilation albums and eventually publishing two books of his poetry. For director Allison Anders’ (Gas, Food, Lodging) first film, Border Radio, Dave made a cameo appearance and composed the soundtrack music, released by Enigma Records in 1987. (Some of that same music surfaced again in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street.) Alvin also wrote and produced music for John Waters’ Cry-Baby (1990).

Phil Alvin has also maintained an active, if less visible, solo career, beginning with Un “Sung Stories,” a traditionalist album that features the very untraditionalist Sun Ra’s Arkestra on three songs. With original bassist John Bazz, Phil enlisted the newest version of the Blasters for some tracks on his 1994 solo album and ensuing performances. (The entire original lineup did one reunion show at an L.A. benefit in the early ’90s, but Dave has otherwise been steadfast in his refusal to rejoin - even on a part-time basis - the band he helped create.)

Dave Alvin’s solo career began with 1987’s Romeo’s Escape, which mixed new compositions with older songs originally written for the Blasters and X. But it was with 1994’s King of California and, later, Blackjack David that critics finally began praising Alvin’s once-ragged vocals as much as his already acclaimed songwriting. In addition to releasing several solo albums, Dave joined the Pleasure Barons, a Who’s Who of roots-oriented players (led by the late Country Dick Montana of the Beat Farmers) that at various times included John Doe, Mojo Nixon, and postpunk country singer Rosie Flores. (The band released one live recording.) He also has produced several albums, among them rockabilly legend Sonny Burgess’ Tennessee Border (1992), three albums by the Derailers, and a 1994 Merle Haggard tribute, Tulare Dust, to which he also contributed a track. In 2000 Alvin reunited with Doe and Exene Cervenka in the Knitters for selected club shows, while continuing his solo career on the road, and in 2001 Alvin won Best Traditional Folk Album for his Public Domain.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)