A singer, songwriter, and guitarist with a keen eye for the details of American life and a powerful and passionate performing style, Dave Alvin helped to kick-start the American roots rock scene in the early '80s with the band the Blasters, and has since gone on to a career as a solo performer, songwriter, producer, and sideman that's been as well respected as it is eclectic. Born and raised in Downey, California, Dave Alvin and his brother Phil Alvin were avid music fans since childhood, immersing themselves in vintage blues, country, and rockabilly sounds. Their passion led to them founding the Blasters, who played roots-inspired rock & roll with the energy and fire of punk rock, in 1979. With Dave as guitarist and principal songwriter, the Blasters became stars in Los Angeles and earned a devoted fan following internationally after the release of their self-titled 1981 album for Slash. Dave left the Blasters after their 1985 album, Hard Line, and launched his solo career with 1987's Every Night About This Time. Health problems sidelined Alvin for a spell, but after Dwight Yoakam scored a hit with Alvin's song "Long White Cadillac," he returned to action with 1991's Blue Blvd. He made a compelling acoustic effort with 1994's King of California, while he doubled down on his interest in traditional folk and rural blues with a pair of critically acclaimed releases, 1998's Blackjack David and 2000's Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land. Through the 2000s, Alvin moved back and forth between electric and acoustic projects, and in 2014 he reunited with his brother Phil for Common Ground: Dave & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy. He documented another memorable collaboration with 2018's Downey to Lubbock, recorded with Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Born in Downey, California in 1955, Alvin was raised by a family of music fans, and as teenagers Dave and his older brother Phil immersed themselves in blues, rockabilly, and vintage country sounds, collecting rare records and attending nightclub performances by the likes of T-Bone Walker, Big Joe Turner, and Lee Allen. Like many fans, the Alvin brothers wanted to play music influenced by the sounds they loved, and in 1979 they formed the Blasters with fellow Downey residents Bill Bateman and John Bazz. Combining the revved-up energy of punk rock with an enthusiastic embrace of classic American sounds, the Blasters became a sensation in Los Angeles and won an enthusiastic cult following across the United States and Europe. However, the Blasters were unable to translate their critical respect and enthusiastic fan base into mainstream success, and in 1986 Dave left the band. Phil Alvin continued to front various lineups of the Blasters, and in 2002 Dave joined forces with Phil, Bill Bateman, and John Bazz for a short series of Blasters reunion shows.

While playing with the Blasters, Alvin had already displayed a broad range of enthusiasms with two side projects, Chris D.'s literate goth-punk collective the Flesh Eaters and the Knitters, an acoustic ensemble in which Alvin performed vintage country and folk numbers with John Doe and Exene Cervenka of X. Shortly after leaving the Blasters, Alvin joined X as lead guitarist after the departure of Billy Zoom; however, Alvin amicably left the group to work on a solo project shortly after the recording sessions for their album See How We Are. Alvin's first solo album, entitled Romeo's Escape in the United States and Every Night About This Time in England, added a purer country influence along with a larger side portion of the blues; while the album was critically well received, it didn't fare well in the marketplace, and Alvin was dropped by his American record label, Columbia. Alvin suffered health problems that sidelined him for a while, except for a wild tour with friends Mojo Nixon and Country Dick Montana as the Pleasure Barons, which was described as "a Las Vegas revue from acts who aren't going to be asked to play Vegas." (A live album was released of a second Pleasure Barons tour in 1993.)

In 1989, Dwight Yoakam scored a hit on the country charts with Alvin's song "Long White Cadillac," and Alvin used the royalties to start work on his second solo set, Blue Blvd. Released by the California-based roots-music label Hightone Records, Blue Blvd received enthusiastic reviews and sold well enough to reestablish Alvin as a significant artist in the roots rock scene. After releasing Museum of Heart in 1993, Alvin began to turn his attention to acoustic music with 1994's King of California, and over the next several years Alvin moved back and forth between hard-edged roots rock and more introspective acoustic material that still honored his influences (and allowed him to display a greater range as a vocalist). In 2000, Alvin recorded a collection of traditional folk and blues classics, Public Domain: Songs from the Wild Land, which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. In 2004, Alvin signed with the upstart roots rock label Yep Roc Records, which released his album Ashgrove, a low-key but hard-edged set of blues and rock. It was followed in 2006 by West of the West and a year later by Live from Austin TX (a performance on Austin City Limits from 1999).

He changed his approach a bit with Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, which was issued by Yep Roc in 2009, by recording with five women, and it seemed to revitalize him. Eleven Eleven, Alvin's first solo studio album of original material in some seven years, appeared in 2011, again on Yep Roc. Eleven Eleven included a duet with Phil Alvin on the tune "What's Up with Your Brother?," and in 2014 Dave and Phil recorded a full album together for the first time since Dave left the Blasters; Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy was a celebration of one of their first and strongest musical influences that found them both in strong form. The Alvin brothers supported Common Ground with a concert tour, and in 2015 Dave and Phil returned with a lively set of electric blues, Lost Time. In 2017, Dave joined forces with another roots music favorite, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, for a concert tour. The two were pleased with the results and went into the studio to cut a duo album, 2018's Downey to Lubbock.

When not busy recording his own music, Alvin has also worked as a producer for several other roots-oriented acts, including Tom Russell, the Derailers, and Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys, and he has collaborated with rockabilly legend Sonny Burgess. As a sideman, Alvin has recorded sessions with the likes of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Little Milton, Katy Moffatt, and Syd Straw. ~ Mark Deming & Steve Leggett

With a warm, warbling tenor voice and folksy, personable approach to both his music and his audiences, Jimmie Dale Gilmore is the archetype of a Texas singer/songwriter, with his eye for the dusty beauty of the Southwest meshing beautifully with the Zen cowboy demeanor that informs his music and his persona. Gilmore came out of the fruitful Lubbock, Texas music scene of the '70s, and his early work with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock as the Flatlanders was a crucial precursor to both the outlaw country and alt-country movements. The Flatlanders' 1972 debut album was barely heard in its day, and Gilmore dropped out of music for a while, but when Ely recorded a pair of Gilmore's songs on his first two solo albums in the late '70s, he returned to performing in 1980, releasing his self-titled debut album in 1988. His first major-label release, 1991's After Awhile, was a superb document of his songwriting chops and sure grasp of folk, country, and pop idioms. Gilmore in many ways came to represent the Austin music scene -- its rootsy mix of country, rock, and folk music -- the way Willie Nelson once reigned as king of the town's cosmic cowboys in the 1970s. Through the '90s, Gilmore recorded at a relaxed pace, and in the 2000s he returned to the independent label community, cutting albums like One Endless Night and Come on Back that focused on his interpretations of the work of other songwriters. (He also participated in a Flatlanders reunion that resulted in three studio albums, beginning with 2002's Now Again, and a number of concert tours.) After years of keeping a low profile outside the Southwest, in 2017 Gilmore set out on tour with roots rock veteran Dave Alvin, and the collaboration led to the pair cutting an album together, 2018's Downey to Lubbock.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's roots go back to Tulia, a small West Texas town where his father played lead guitar in a country band. When Gilmore was in grade school the family moved to Lubbock, a Panhandle town known for being the starting point for a surprising number of musicians (including Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Terry Allen, and Gilmore's onetime singing partners Butch Hancock and Joe Ely). Growing up in Lubbock, Gilmore met Butch Hancock when they were both 12, and they remained friends and frequent musical collaborators ever since. Gilmore later met Terry Allen, who he says inspired him to write his own songs. One of the first songs Gilmore wrote, when he was around 20, was "Treat Me Like a Saturday Night," which remains one of his most enduring pieces. Later, another casual friend of Gilmore's, Joe Ely, turned him on to the music of Townes Van Zandt, which Gilmore says was a revelation for the way Van Zandt integrated the worlds of folk and country music.

Gilmore and Ely began playing music together around Lubbock as the T. Nickel House Band. Later, after a brief stint in Austin, Gilmore hooked up again back in Lubbock with Ely and Hancock and formed the Flatlanders, a now-legendary band that also included Steve Wesson, Tony Pearson, and several peripheral members. The group recorded an album in Nashville in 1972, but it was only ever released at the time on eight-track tape. (Long a collector's item, it was finally re-released by Rounder Records in 1990 under the title More a Legend Than a Band). A mix of acoustic folk, string-band country, and country blues, the album included another of Gilmore's best-known songs, "Dallas," which was actually released as a promo single at the time but generated little interest. By the end of the year the band had split up.

Gilmore moved to Denver, playing music only as a hobby. Ely, meanwhile, had won a record contract and had recorded some of Gilmore's songs. In 1980, Gilmore moved back to Austin, where he began playing regular gigs in local clubs. Finally, in 1988, Gilmore released his debut solo album, Fair and Square, on Hightone, Ely's label at the time. This and his 1989 follow-up, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, featured songs by Gilmore as well as Hancock and Ely played in a more straightforward honky tonk style than anything Gilmore had done previously or since. These two albums gained Gilmore newfound acclaim just as Austin itself was becoming a musical hot spot again. In 1990, the Flatlanders album was re-released, and Virgin Australia put out Two Roads, a duet album with Hancock that was recorded live during the pair's Australian tour. Gilmore was soon signed to Elektra, which released After Awhile in 1991 as part of the label's American Explorer series. The album retained a country feeling but was less honky tonk in nature, and it attracted Gilmore even more acclaim.

Nashville showed little interest in Gilmore's brand of country music, but he earned the praise of many critics. His next album, Spinning Around the Sun, came out in 1993 and again featured a mix of contemporary and traditional country-flavored songs and a fuller instrumental sound fronted by Gilmore's rich, warm voice. In 1996 he released Braver Newer World, produced by T-Bone Burnett, but the big news for Gilmore's fans came in 1998, when he reunited with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock to record a new Flatlanders track for the soundtrack of the motion picture The Horse Whisperer. While Gilmore stayed busy with his own music, releasing One Endless Night in early 2000, the Flatlanders began periodically touring together again, and they finally got around to cutting a second album in 2002, Now Again, with a third set, Wheels of Fortune, following in 2004. (That same year, tapes from an old Flatlanders gig were given commercial release under the title Live at the One Knite, Austin TX, June 8th 1972.) Gilmore returned to solo duties in 2005 with Come on Back, an album of classic honky tonk and folk songs Jimmie Dale recorded to honor the passing of his father; Joe Ely produced and played on the project. In 2011, Gilmore and his ad hoc band the Wronglers released the album Heirloom Music, a collection of vintage folk and country tunes performed on antique instruments. Gilmore kept a low profile for the next few years, rarely performing outside the Southwest, but in 2017 he set out on a concert tour in tandem with roots rock stalwart Dave Alvin, in which they swapped songs and stories. The shows were successful enough that Gilmore and Alvin decided to cut an album together, and Downey to Lubbock was released in June 2018. ~ Kurt Wolff & Mark Deming