Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore Cover Almost a Century of American Music in Mixed Genre ‘Downey to Lubbock’ (ALBUM REVIEW)

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On the surface, this may seem like an odd pairing of two legends. Their voices couldn’t be more different with Alvin’s low and rowdy baritone offset by Gilmore’s high lonesome warble. Consider also Alvin’s blistering blues guitar attack with Gilmore’s mellow folk-country approach. The liners pose these kinds of dream duets: Bobby Blue Bland and Doug Sahm or John Lennon with Arthur Alexander. This has that same kind of high profile. Rather than placing the two in studio, each with an acoustic guitar and letting the tape roll, instead Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore take us from Downey to Lubbock covering both familiar and unfamiliar tunes from the 1920s to the relatively recent, be it Woody Guthrie, Lloyd Price, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Steve Young, or Chris Gaffney, backed by a full band. Alvin penned two stellar originals too. Gilmore, who proves to be a forceful blues singer, has rarely sounded better and Alvin holds nothing back in several incendiary guitar solos. This pairing not only works – it’s downright riveting.

Alvin (‘the wild blues Blaster”) hails from the blue-collar Orange County town of Downey, CA while Gilmore (“the old Flatlander”), one-third of the legendary Lubbock TX trio The Flatlanders, has been singing for almost a half a century. The two have known each other for more than thirty years and somehow decided to tour together last year. Buoyed by the results of their live gigs, the instant chemistry and a shared love of many forms of American music not unlike the mix that came from border radio stations and Wolfman Jack – a signal that reached into southern California and West Texas. They decided to lay down some the songs they were doing.

The opening track “Downey to Lubbock” captures in just a few brilliant Alvin lines the nature of lifelong touring for both “Forty years on the highway living off dreams and gasoline. Somehow still surviving on Advil, Nyquil and nicotine,” sings Dave. Gilmore sings, “like wanderlust and wonder, West Texas wind blows through my veins.” Both have written extensively about their home states and each is familiar with music of the West and South. Ironically though, as they capture in this song, they learned they were listening to artists like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Son House, Brownie McGhee, Big Joe Turner and others in the same club – L.A.’s famous Ash Grove, which Alvin has often described as his musical foundation. Little did he know, that Gilmore had drifted in from Texas to hear artists there too. Gilmore never heard Hopkins in Texas, for example. So, Gilmore relates that the repertoire for the album was built-in without them knowing it.

The Ashgrove inspired the gospel Brownie and McGhee closer “Walk On” and the Alvin blistering guitar-driven Hopkins’ “Buddy Brown’s Blues.” There’s the stark splendor of Gilmore’s high voice on a deeply reverent reading of Guthrie’s “Deportee.” Gilmore’s plaintive wail colors Steve Young’s “Silverlake,” and Alvin takes lead on John Stewart’s “July, You’re a Woman” as well as paying tribute to his best friend, the late Chris Gaffney in “The Gardens.” They cover other familiar tunes too like The Youngbloods’ “Get Together” and Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy.” Jugband music is represented in “Stealin’ Stealin’” with Jimmie Dale blowing harp and “K.C. Moan.” Alvin’s original, the mythical encounter “Billy the Kid and Geronimo,” on which they duet, is also filled with several of clever Alvin trademark lines.

The two gush over each other – Alvin praising Gilmore’s unique blues singing and utter calmness while Gilmore talks about Alvin’s soulfulness, intelligence and anarchic streak. We could fill several paragraphs with various statements but this one deserves calling out. “Jimmie said my favorite thing I’ve ever heard in a recording studio,” Alvin said. “There’s a guitar solo on ‘K.C. Moans’ that I thought might be too over the top and Jimmie said, ‘There’s a time when more Blue Cheer is better than less Blue Cheer. And this is more Blue Cheer time.”

With help from two different lineups – one with Alvin’s Guilty Ones rhythm section of Lisa Pankratz (drums) and Brad Fordham (bass) and the other featuring Don Heffington (drums) and David J. Carpenter (bass) and Nick Forster on various strings, other notable guests appear on select tracks. Among them are Van Dkye Parks on accordion, Skip Edwards on keyboards and Jeff Turmes on saxes for “Buddy Brown’s Blues.” Colin Gilmore (Jimmie Dale’s son) adds harmonies on “Deportee while Cindy Wasserman does so on “The Gardens.”

Seemingly odd pairings can work. Perhaps this was predestined. In any case, it succeeds marvelously.

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