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The group was able to capitalize on the reunion gigs with two live records and a DVD of the last performance of the reunited Blasters (though they recently played a one-off gig at a blues festival as a favor to the organizer and as a fill-in and tribute to Bo Diddley, whose illness left an open slot atop the bill). But Alvin's attention is now turned toward his own touring band, The Guilty Men, which, after a set lineup for several years, recently incorporated new blood.
In particular, guitarist Chris Miller (Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson, Lavay Smith) took the seat formerly held by long-time Guilty Man Rick Shea, now retired from the road. That change has altered the band's internal dynamic to the degree that Alvin's love of the live gig has become, if anything, even more of "an addiction" since going out on the road for the first time as a new unit with the release of Ashgrove in June.
Alvin's live persona retains much of the intensity he began with in the Blasters (an intoxicating live band if there ever was one). The distance between the material and Alvin's emotions is virtually non-existent. (Ever the perfectionist, Alvin broke a bone in his hand during his last Charlotte gig in 2001 when his amplifier wouldn't co-operate without a little...manual prodding.)
"One of my drawbacks as a performer is that my eyes are closed a lot when I'm on stage," he says. "But it's because I'm going back to where I wrote the song, and I'm picturing driving on the freeway late at night writing the song in my head so that I can go back to that place and conjure up some kind of immediacy."
Alvin is so happy with the band's new sound that, for the first time since the Blasters, he's strongly considering entering the studio next time with songs written specifically for a full band. But, older and wiser since those early rough-and-tumble days with the Blasters, Alvin now knows that the song -- no matter what genre you care to lump it in -- is still King.
"To me the song still dictates things," he says. "What the song wants, the song gets. But right now this band is so good, there have been some nights in the last two-and-a-half months that have just been unbelievable. I stand back and go, "they let me play with them? I'm not good enough to be in this band.'"
Dave Alvin and The Guilty Men play The Visulite Theatre Saturday at 9pm; doors open at 8pm and Amy Farris opens. Tickets are $12 in advance at $15 on the day of the show, available through www.visulite.com or by calling 704-358-9299.
Tift Merritt Finds Her Voice By Expanding Repetoire
By Timothy C. David
In the halcyon days of the early 1970s, the music of Carole King and Joni Mitchell was regularly played across radio and social lines, often going platinum-plus in the process. Today, thanks to artists like Lucinda Williams and Alicia Keys and Norah Jones, female singer-songwriters are being drawn to the spotlight like never before. Williams, a blend of rock and country/blues influences, enjoys a hardcore following of country and "alt.country" fans, as well as the odd NPR listener looking for something new. Keys counts hip/hop and soul fans among her listenership, as well as a VH1-style boomer audience. Multiple Grammy-winner Jones? She damn near invented an audience. Who knew there were five million smoky jazz/lounge music fans out there, a whole million of which would buy her new album in the first week of its release? (The record, Feels Like Home, is the strongest out-of-the-box sales hit since 2001.)
Artists and labels in the nebulous genre "alt.country" -- always unsure of what to call their music in the first place -- have taken notice. Thanks to a full-scale media blitz, Canada's Kathleen Edwards, heretofore known as an attractive, if under-known twanger with potential, found herself named by Rolling Stone magazine as performer to watch. She appeared twice on the Late Show with David Letterman, on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CNN, and even Last Call with Carson Daly. Time claimed her deserving of "a place at the table, somewhere between Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow." Her album? Maybe sold 40,000 units (another 40,000 found their way into the hands of the press, it seems).
The Houston-born, NC-bred Tift Merritt -- in town on Wednesday, September 22, at The Visulite Theatre -- hopes her music lands her someplace in the middle. Having already appeared on Letterman and in the pages of Vanity Fair and Entertainment Weekly on the strength of her excellent debut, Bramble Rose, the Lost Highway Records promotional blitz appears to be in full-on media sack-mode once again, this time for her self-proclaimed new "rock and soul" record, Tambourine. Produced by George Drakoulias (Black Crowes), the album hosts a slew of big-name contributors, including Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, Don Heffington (Lone Justice), Maria McKee, Gary Louris (Jayhawks), and steel guitarist Robert Randolph.
