Page 31 - BiTS_08_AUGUST_2021

LL: When did you start to play music? Self-taught or did you study? Influences?

DA: Well, I took some tenor saxophone lessons from our friend and mentor, the
great New Orleans sax man, Lee Allen. I wasn't very good at it though and he

eventually gently told me that "Maybe saxophone is not your instrument, David."

Haha! My brother Phil always had a teenage blues band going so I'd hang around as
they practiced in the garage, staring at the fingers of the various guitar players who
passed through his combo and then, when they'd leave to take a break, I'd grab their

guitars and try to duplicate what they had just played. Phil and I also hung around a
club called the Ash Grove (about 22 miles from Downey) where we would see T-Bone

Walker, Johnny Guitar Watson, Earl Hooker, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, etc. The next
day I'd pick up my brother's old Epiphone guitar and try to recreate what I heard

those masters play the night before. I really didn't try to seriously play guitar until I
was 17 or 18 years old though. There were just too many brilliant guitarists in our

hometown so playing
guitar seemed impossible

to me. It still does in some
ways. Haha!

LL: Please tell us about
some of the bands you’ve

played in. How’d you
come to be a part of

them?

DA: There've so many

that it's difficult to go into
them all. My brother and I

put together The Blasters
in 1979 to play the blues, R&B, and rockabilly music we loved. It was a lot of fun for
a few years until it wasn't fun anymore. After The Blasters, John Doe and Exene from

the classic punk rock band X, asked me to join X after their guitarist Billy Zoom had
left the band. John and I had already played together in a voodoo/swamp/art/punk-

jazz band called The Flesh Eaters as well as in the folk/country outfit, The Knitters,
so joining X was a good fit for me for a while. I eventually missed playing my kind of

roots music, so I left X and started my solo career to get back to the sort of blues/folk
inspired music that I love. That's what I've done ever since.

LL: Some of your songs have been recorded by other artists. What are some of
your favourite “Dave Alvin” covers?

DA: I honestly don't have a favourite cover version of one my songs. I'm just truly
touched when anyone sings one of my songs, Whether it's Los Lobos, Buckwheat

Zydeco, Dwight Yoakam, James McMurtry or Joe Ely, I'm honoured that they would