Almanac Music: Not Quite Bob – Rockabilly Brothers: The Blasters, Phil Alvin, Dave Alvin, Jimmie Dale Gilmore

 

 

The Blasters

 

My mate Tim is the Bob nut in our lot.  Fanatical as some are.  But he’s also keen on The Blasters and the brothers Alvin.

 

The Alvin boys, Phil and Dave, hail from Downey, California and they formed The Blasters in 1979.  The Blasters are the bar band you wish played at your local.  They knelt at the feet of Big Joe Turner and T-Bone Walker and it’s not at all surprising that their first album in 1980 is called American Music.. Right from the giddyup you know what to expect and they’re great at it.

 

 

 

 

They follow that with a self titled album in 1981 which starts of with this, Marie, Marie and keeps things rockin’ and rollin’ from there.

 

 

 

 

But, stop me if you’ve heard this before, the brothers start fighting about you know, who’s the boss ‘n shit and in 1985 they call it quits.  Bugger.  But not before they release their best known album from this period.  1985’s Hard Line.

 

 

 

 

The one heading for the door was younger brother Dave but Phil has kept originals John Bazz and Bill Bateman in a lineup with lots of others over many years with good records still being made occasionally up until recently.  Here’s a whole set from 2018.

 

 

 

 

As I said at the start with The Blasters it says it all right on the label – you’ll tap your feet, dance and bop right along.  Fun, even at that gig, when the cracks are showing.

 

 

 

Phil Alvin

 

Phil also has a solo career but his output outside The Blasters is pretty thin.  However soon after Dave scampers off in 1986 Phil releases Un “Sung Stories”.

 

 

 

 

The golden country twang and a good bunch of rockabilly songs are all there but his health doesn’t hold up such that in 2013 he’s appearing at a benefit for himself with one of the tracks from that album in ‘Brother Can You Spare A Dime’.

 

 

 

 

He does re-unite with Dave in the recording studio and on-stage eventually but let’s go to Dave and have a look at his more prolific career.

 

 

 

Dave Alvin

 

Two years younger than Phil, Dave has by far the bigger career and is really one of the leading lights in this American rockabilly sound.  His first post Blasters record, also in 1986 (boy they must have been bluin’ big time) is Romeo’s Escape.

 

A better singer than Phil, he’s away.  And it really doesn’t stop there.  He releases great records one after the other and takes it all on stage where he’s dynamic and, well, rockin’.

 

From 1993’s Museum of the Heart, the title track.

 

 

 

 

But there’s also a country crooner in him and in 1994 he releases King of California.  Overused by me I know but it is a cracker.

 

 

 

 

The title track is a beauty.

 

 

 

 

Like Ry Cooder and others he’s also something of the musicologist and has recorded quite a few albums of traditional country and blues songs which you can search out on the streamers.

 

In 2006 there’s West Of The West which features covers of songs from famous (and not so famous) Californians.  How about this heartbreaker from that album, Surfer Girl.  I’m pretty sure Brian Wilson would approve.

 

 

 

 

But the boys from Downey never forgets his roots and keeps cranking out album after album full of belters.  Eleven Eleven in 2011 is a particular favorite.  By now the brothers have reconciled and on this track the message is clear.

 

 

 

 

‘What’s Up With Your Brother?’  What indeed?  In 2014 they collaborate on an album of covers of Big Bill Broonzy songs called Common Ground.

 

 

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And then the next year we get Lost Time which does rather underline the futility of the spat from decades earlier.  The album is an essential for fans of this type of thing.  And who aint, right?  They’ve got really nice versions of most of the songs up on YouTube.  Here, ‘World’s In A Bad Condition’.

 

 

 

 

As Phil battles away with his health problems (he’s had a tracheotomy) Dave is still fighting the good fight for the genre.  Another frequent coverer of Bob here he is with ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ from 2020’s From An Old Guitar, another must have for fans.

 

 

 

 

Terrific.  The subtitle from that album indicates that the tracks are offcuts and unreleased stuff he had in the vault.  Keep digging Dave because if this is any indication of the contents of your vault bring it on.  I’ve heard stacks of versions of this but this is a pearler.

 

 

 

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

 

I’m not going far into Jimmie’s story except to say he hails from Lubbock in Texas, is about the same vintage as Bob and is still actively recording and touring today.  His story will be more fully told in a piece that will include The Flatlanders, an outfit he’s been with for decades with Butch Hancock and Joe Ely.

 

For this piece though I wanted to shine the torch on Downey To Lubbock an album he did with Dave Alvin in 2018.  Get on it.

 

 

 

 

A classic collab of it’s kind.  The more weather beaten voice of JDG with Dave’s terrific gruff twang.  Let’s finish on this one.

 

 

 

You want to be there right?  I know I do.  As I said at the start you wish these guys were playing down at the local rubbedy.  It’s their home ground.  Mine too.

 

 

You can read more from Trevor Blainey HERE.

 

 

Read more stories from Almanac Music  HERE

 

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