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DAVE ALVIN – RARE MUSINGS

By Lawrence Lebo

Grammy winning Roots artist Dave Alvin is an

American treasure.

Mr. Alvin
and I hail

from
neighbouring blue-collar

towns in the suburbs of Los Angeles,
and thus we have travelled in neighbouring

musical circles. Dave and his famous older
brother Phil grew up in Downey, California

(home of the pop star duo The Carpenters),
during a time when middle-class America

was still strong and thriving. That
experience has fuelled his artistic voice in

ways that most Americans can immediately
relate to. Dave Alvin tells their stories. He

invokes musical nostalgia … longings for
the good ol’ days and simpler times. And

he’s been doing it for over 40 years!

Dave’s latest release Songs From An Old

Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
pays homage to the songs and artists that

inspire him. The global pandemic created
the opportunity for Dave to go back
through his unreleased recordings and choose the songs he recorded for the pure

pleasure of playing that song, and for the pure pleasure of recording music. Now that
pleasure is all ours to enjoy.

The majority of the 16 tracks cover other roots artists (Chris Smither’s 'Link of
Chain', Bob Dylan’s 'Highway 61 Revisited', Doug Sahm’s 'Dynamite Woman', Bo

Carter’s 'Who Been Here', Marty Robbins 'Who Walks Among Us', Willie Dixon’s
'Peace', Bill Morrisey’s 'Inside', Peter Case’s 'On The Way Downtown', Lillian

Armstrong’s 'Perdido Street Blues', Mickey Newbury’s 'Mobile Blue', Link Davis’s
'Albuquerque', Robert Lee McDill’s 'Amanda', a variation on Earl Hooker’s 'Guitar

Rhumba’). New material includes; 'Krazy and Ignatz', 'Beautiful City ‘Cross The
River', and 'Signal Hill Blues’.