Dave Alvin
Live in Austin, TX
New West
CD/DVD
Great American Music Galaxy
Yep Rock
CD

New West Records’ excellent partnership with the PBS TV series, “Austin City Limits”, releasing concerts on CD and DVD, continues with this must-have set from Dave Alvin (and his Guilty Men band), dating back to 1999. All of Alvin’s live recordings have been killer, including a 1996 set at the Continental Club (also in Austin), 2002’s “Live in California”, and 2005’s “Great American Music Galaxy”.

Alvin is one of those rare live performers (like Springsteen, John Hiatt, Steve Earle and a few others) whose concerts often eclipse studio work, adding greater dimension and emotional depth through brilliantly arranged and paced material. That’s definitely the case on “Live in Austin, TX”, recorded and shot around the time of Alvin’s 1998 album, “Blackjack David.”

All of Alvin’s signature songs are here as he leads off with folk fable “King of California” and also plays his own, semi-biographical “Dry River” and enduring “Fourth of July”, written during his brief mid-’80s stint in X.

His greatest country hit that should’ve happened, “Abilene”, is an evocative tale, and he also delivers his medley of the depression-era-styled but applicable to Reagan and now Bush America, “Jublilee Train”, Woody Guthrie’s “Do-Re-Me”, and Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land”. From his ’80s days in The Blasters, there’s a swaying lullaby take on the “Border Radio” and the rip-snorting “Marie, Marie” too.

The CD is superb listening, and the DVD version offers more insight into Alvin the frontman–fierce on guitar and commanding with his baritone vocals. Call it Roots Music, Country Rock, Folk Blues, Americana–it’s all music that lasts.

The same can be said of “Great American Music Galaxy”, recorded at both the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco and Galaxy Theater in Santa Ana, south of L.A. Originally a tour item, though you’ll find it online now, we’re a half dozen years down the road, Alvin focusing on material from his ‘04 album, “Ashgrove”.

The transition between the ballad “Somewhere In Time” into the “Ashrove” stomping blues shuffle title track is gripping, as is the dark story of “Mary Brown”, shifting into the hit-the-highway release of “Out in California”. There are shots of “So Long Baby, Goodbye” and “Trouble Bound” dating back to The Blasters, as well as a ripping, extended workout for “Marie Marie”.

So far, every live set the man’s issued has been a stunner, and there’s little doubt that with the craft Dave Alvin brings to every recording and tour performance, acoustic or electric, that’s going to continue. And we’re lucky to have that.

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