‘King of California’ Returns to Buffalo

By Robert J. McLennan

Every now and then I’ll bring up Dave Alvin to somebody who I think is a music fan and I consider like-minded. Not always, but a bit too often, I’ll get a stare back at me that says, “who are you talking about?”   

I say, “y’know, The Blasters, his song ‘Fourth of July,’” and stammer something about his solo albums and I realize I’m not getting through.  I know, it happens to me: there’s so much great music out there, both nationally and in Western New York, that it’s easy to miss music that you would like if you only had the right opportunity to experience it.

Of course, this isn’t always the case with Dave Alvin, as he has garnered many fans of his music throughout the world.  After all, he has toured for over 40 years, won a Grammy and released many albums on his own and with The Blasters. Many other artists have recorded his songs, his music has been used in “The Sopranos,” “Justified,” “The Wire,” “True Blood” and more, and this year he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association.  

Alvin was introduced at the awards show by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and he performed his song, “Fourth of July” with an all-star band.  It’s 1 hour, 4 minutes into this marathon video from that night.

I spoke with Alvin from his home in Los Angeles about his upcoming show at the Sportsmen’s Tavern on Friday night (Oct. 25, 2024) with several questions in mind. One was about the classic song, “Fourth of July.”  I told him I always get choked up when I hear it and I wondered what it was about that song that did that.  

He said he understood and has a similar feeling.  He thought it might be the simplicity and uncertainty of the lyrics, combined with the imagery of the Mexican kids shooting fireworks and the fact that, hey baby, despite it all, it’s the fourth of July!   He said they regularly play the song on July 4 at major league baseball games for the Dodgers and Angels in California.

The first time I saw Alvin was with The Blasters at The Tralf in the mid-’80s.  The Blasters’ combination of punk and rockabilly was ferocious!  Then I saw him at the very first ticketed show at the Sportsmen’s Tavern on a frigid night on Feb. 5, 2007.  He warmed up Black Rock with an epic show.  

Alvin said he remembers that show well.  He said, “One thing I learned that day was that cowboy boots don’t go too well with two inches of ice on the sidewalk, going back and forth to the dressing room next door.”

Since then I’ve seen him just about every time he’s come back to Buffalo and in several other cities in various combinations with The Blasters, the Guilty Ones, The Guilty Men, The Guilty Women and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.  A special treat was seeing Alvin with his brother, the great singer Phil Alvin, and the Guilty Ones twice at the Sportsmen’s. 

An evening I will never forget was the time I snuck into the sound check at the Sportsmen’s and it gave me an opportunity to talk with Alvin for a while, including about his father’s and my grandfather’s lives as union organizers in California and Buffalo.  

Alvin’s songs, like “Gary Indiana 1959,” “Common Man” and “Jubilee Train,” reflect his affinity for the struggles of working people and the never-ending quest for economic and social justice.  

Alvin’s father, Casimer Czyzewski (yeah, that’s Dave’s real last name) was an organizer with the United Steelworkers union in California and Dave has many memories from his childhood about that being part of their lives.  

“There was the time me and my brother were awakened in the night and told to get ready, we’re going to Arizona.  And I remember being 6 or 7 years old and being at a clandestine union rally with the miners in Colorado,” he said. 

Alvin is a legend, one of the pioneers of Americana Music.  However, as broad an umbrella as the term Americana is, in his case it is limiting.  There is nobody like Dave Alvin.  

Referring to the Lifetime Achievement Award, Alvin said, “That was an emotional night for me. I never really feel like I fit into any scene, like in Nashville.”  

But that’s one of the essential characteristics of Dave Alvin.  He fits into any scene but stands alone as one of a kind. Alvin is a bluesman, a rock ‘n’ roller, a surf guitarist, a folkie, a REAL country artist, a rockabilly hero, a songwriter and an archivist of American music, including songs written about California, by Californians. He is a fifth generation Californian from his mother’s side.

Alvin has lived an almost mythic life in American music, from sneaking into blues clubs with his brother Phil and driving legendary bluesman Big Joe Turner around as a teenager to delivering albums and songs of incredible beauty. They can range from  heart-pounding blues and rock ‘n roll  to every kind of Americana and traditional music in between.   Listen to “Marie Marie,” “Long White Cadillac,” “Rio Grande,” “King of California,” “Harlan County Line,” “California Bloodlines,” “Border Radio,” “Out of Control,” “Ashgrove,” “Everett Ruess” (and they still haven’t found his body, boys) and many, many more.

I asked Alvin if he was thinking about touring with his band with a slightly more acoustic approach, like doing songs from his “Public Domain” or “West of the West” albums.  He said that was a possibility, since he does plan to keep taking his music on the road.  

That itself is very good news.  Dave has been dealing with cancer over the last four or five years but he reports that he is now cancer-free.  And his brother Phil is also doing much better, “coming along” as Dave put it, with plans to return to singing and performing. Phil has had major health issues in recent years.

The Guilty Ones are Chris Miller on guitar, Brad Fordham on bass and Lisa Pankratz on drums.  This is not a backing band that blends into the background of Alvin’s songs;  this is a high-energy, powerful group that puts on quite a show themselves. 

And what a bonus getting Jimmie Dale Gilmore on the bill. Gilmore has been writing and playing for decades.  He’s another one who defies categorization, mixing folk, rock, country, blues and bluegrass.  He’s been nominated three times for Grammys in both Contemporary and Traditional Folk and he was named Country Music Artist of the Year three years in a row by Rolling Stone.  Gilmore’s song “Dallas,” recorded with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock when they played together as The Flatlanders in the early ‘70s, has become one of Ely’s trademark songs through the years.

Dave Alvin’s music has been an important part of my world for 40 years.  If you’ve never heard Alvin’s songs, you have a whole world of brilliant music to get into that will blow you away.  If you’ve never seen him live, you’re in for quite an experience.  You’ll wonder where you’ve been.   The man is 68 years old and has been out on the highway, traveling town to town, for decades, but he still brings it all to the stage every night. 

And I’m out on this highway travelin’ town to town
And the news on the radio just brings me down
Intolerance and fear
Ignorance and lies
It’s the same old same old I heard a million times
And I’m thinkin’ of friends and lovers
And how they come and go
Like look-alike houses on the side of the road
Full of everyday people tryin’ to get ahead
Tryin’ to find a reason just to get out of bed
‘Cause we all need somethin’ just to get us through
Well I’m gonna play the blues tonight man
‘Cause that’s what I do.                   

Dave Alvin – “Ashgrove”

“There are two types of folk music: quiet folk music and loud folk music. I play both.” – Dave Alvin

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Robert J. McLennan is vice-president of the Board of Directors of The Buffalo Hive and is former president of the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation.