Dave Alvin was born on November 11, 1955, in Downey, California. As The Blasters’ guitarist and principal songwriter, he supplied much of the material that his older brother Phil Alvin sang. A solo career would bring a different challenge: learning how to deliver those stories in his own voice.
The brothers’ musical education started long before The Blasters formed in 1979. They collected old 78s, listened to late-night border radio and went into clubs while underage to hear the blues musicians whose records they loved. Older cousins introduced them to music, too. Those interests gave Dave a foundation that stretched across blues, country and rock ’n’ roll, with the musicians themselves close enough to watch and learn from.
Writing original songs wasn’t the band’s starting plan. In a 2004 interview with No Depression, Alvin recalled that Rollin’ Rock wanted original material before making a record. The band agreed that everyone would bring songs to rehearsal. Dave arrived with three; nobody else brought any. “American Music” was among that first batch, and “Marie Marie” followed soon afterward. Both songs appeared on the band’s 1980 debut, American Music, and returned on their self-titled 1981 album for Slash.
Alvin left the band in 1986 and released his first solo album, Romeo’s Escape, in 1987. Finding a comfortable way to sing took longer. He told No Depression that he had tried to work outside his baritone range, following the example of higher-voiced singers, including his brother. “I was fighting against my natural register,” he recalled. Greg Leisz encouraged him to work with the voice he had.
That lesson took shape on King of California, released in 1994 and produced by Leisz. Acoustic performances had given Alvin room to experiment with quieter passages and changing dynamics, and the album brought that experience into the studio. He returned to earlier material, including “Fourth of July” and “Barn Burning,” alongside newer songs and covers. The title song, written for his mother, follows a man heading west to seek his fortune. It offered a setting in which the story and the singer’s delivery could carry the record.
His interest in older songs also led to Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land, released in 2000. The collection of traditional material won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2001, giving his work as an interpreter recognition alongside his songwriting.
The records he and Phil had loved as boys eventually provided a way to make another album together. In 2014, the brothers released Common Ground, devoted to songs associated with Big Bill Broonzy. Both sang and played guitar. Explaining the choice to Terry Gross on Fresh Air that June, Dave said, “We wouldn’t argue about Big Bill Broonzy.” Using that shared repertoire let them begin with music they agreed on, without first negotiating a new set of Dave’s lyrics.
They also made practical decisions about how two brothers with guitars would sound together. Dave told Gross that he used a resonator while Phil played a conventional acoustic guitar, giving each instrument a distinct place in the arrangements. Broonzy hadn’t used a resonator himself, Dave noted. Even while returning to a childhood influence, the brothers made room for their own choices in the recording.
