The Blasters - Fun On Saturday Night

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:35
Size: 81.5 MB
Styles: Rock roots, Electric blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[2:32] 1. Well Oh Well
[3:32] 2. Jackson
[3:56] 3. Breath Of My Love
[2:12] 4. Fun On Saturday Night
[3:54] 5. No Nights By Myself
[2:23] 6. Love Me With A Feeling
[3:11] 7. I Don't Want Cha
[2:35] 8. Please Please Please
[2:18] 9. Rock My Blues Away
[3:28] 10. Penny
[2:35] 11. The Yodeling Mountaineer
[2:54] 12. Maria Maria

Guitarist and songwriter Dave Alvin left the Blasters in 1986, and it wasn't until 2004 that the band, under the leadership of lead vocalist and guitarist Phil Alvin, got around to cutting a new studio album, 4-11-44, so the gap of a mere eight years between that album and 2012's Fun on a Saturday Night seems like a brief intermission by comparison. 4-11-44 felt uneven, as if this once mighty band lost the muscle and the focus they commanded in their prime, but even though they still don't have a songwriter strong enough to compensate for Dave Alvin's absence, Fun on a Saturday Night is a definite improvement, a great set of classic blues and R&B covers that cuts a solid groove and sounds like these guys are having a hell of a good time. Phil Alvin's voice is a few shades grainier than it once was, but he wails like he means it as he tears into "Rock My Blues Away," "Well Oh Well," and "Love Me with a Feeling" with a joyous abandon. Alvin struts like a bantam rooster as he duets with Exene Cervenka on "Jackson," and reveals you don't necessarily have to be crazy to cover James Brown's "Please, Please, Please." Alvin also sounds convincing when the band slows the tempo on "No More Nights by Myself" and "Penny," and his longtime cohorts, bassist John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman, have just the right touch for this material, tough when they need to be and easy when the song calls for it. Guitarist Keith Wyatt has impressive chops and the good sense to not make like a show-off, and when the band turns their classic "Marie Marie" into a Mexican folk number on "Maria Maria," the gambit works like a charm. Easily the oddest number here is also the sole original; "Breath of My Love" is a funny but harrowing tale of domestic discord written by Phil Alvin that cuts to the bone and may feature the first recorded instance of a doo wop chorus singing "Nine One One." Fun on a Saturday Night isn't an epochal roots rock statement like the Blasters' best work, but that also doesn't seem to be what the band had in mind for this set; instead, this is four guys playing some songs they love with the skill and smarts of a lifetime devoted to the music, and this is 36 minutes of good rockin' fun that will kick off a Saturday night (or any other night of the week) in high style. ~Mark Deming

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Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin - Lost Time

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:35
Size: 99.8 MB
Styles: Modern electric blues
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[3:41] 1. Mister Kicks
[4:24] 2. World's In A Bad Conditon
[3:29] 3. Cherry Red Blues
[4:07] 4. Rattlesnakin' Daddy
[2:33] 5. Hide And Seek
[2:47] 6. Papa's On The House Top
[3:12] 7. In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues)
[2:40] 8. Please Please Please
[4:20] 9. Sit Down, Baby
[5:16] 10. Wee Baby Blues
[3:12] 11. Feeling Happy
[3:47] 12. If You See My Savior

The title of the Alvin brothers’ follow-up to their Grammy-nominated 2014 Common Ground reunion project that found them working together for the first time in 30 years is multi-faceted and bittersweet. Clearly they are trying to make up for that lost time after not working together since Dave amicably left the Blasters in 1987. But more than that, these dozen covers are predominantly tunes that were also lost to time. Phil and Dave dig deep to reveal these hidden blues and R&B gems, then polish, rearrange and unleash them with pent up energy, providing the tracks with new leases on life.

Dave’s short yet informative liner notes explain the disc is also a tribute to ’50s blues shouter and Alvin brothers friend Big Joe Turner, whose photo adorns the back cover. Four tracks are Turner covers and it’s no secret that much of Phil’s distinctive singing style dates back to that of Big Joe. But from the opening guitar and walking bass lick of Oscar Brown, Jr.’s demonic “Mr. Kicks” to the closing acoustic gospel of “If You See My Savior” (one of the few times both guys sing on the same tune), it’s clear the brothers are having a blast reviving songs they obviously love and have influenced them for decades.

Not surprisingly Phil does the bulk of the singing. Even after his near-death scare a few years back, he sounds strong, vibrant and often, as on a version of James Brown’s “Please Please Please” that nearly beats the classic original, stronger and more powerful than ever. Old Blasters piano man Gene Taylor makes a welcome guest appearance on the salacious public domain blues of “Rattlesnakin’ Daddy,” one of Dave’s few vocals, while letting Phil display his dynamic harp abilities. The twosome takes Willie Dixon by way of Otis Rush’s “Sit Down, Baby” down to the swamp with another of Dave’s baritone vocals and knock Turner’s “Wee Baby Blues” out of the park with a wild Dave guitar solo, searing slide work from Chris Miller and Phil’s emotional singing.

This is a blues album, but with styles that range from ragtime to jump with Chicago, Texas and Piedmont thrown in it’s diverse, fresh and rocking. There’s not a weak track in the dozen making this another candidate for blues release of the year from brothers who almost never got to play another note together. Making up for lost time never sounded so good.

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Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin - Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play And Sing The Songs Of Big Bill Broonzy

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 42:18
Size: 96.9 MB
Styles: Roots rock, Contemporary blues
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[3:27] 1. All By Myself
[4:07] 2. I Feel So Good
[2:58] 3. How You Want It Done
[4:27] 4. Southern Flood Blues
[3:16] 5. Big Bill Blues
[3:46] 6. Key To The Highway
[3:18] 7. Tomorrow
[3:49] 8. Just A Dream
[3:10] 9. You've Changed
[4:40] 10. Stuff The Call Money
[3:06] 11. Truckin' Little Woman
[2:08] 12. Saturday Night Rub

Blasters founders Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin have had a famously combative relationship over the years, but as Dave once said, "We argue sometimes, but we never argue about Big Bill Broonzy." So it's fitting that their love of Big Bill brings them together in the recording studio for their first album together since the Blasters' Hard Line in 1985. Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play & Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy features the Alvin Brothers performing a dozen songs from the Broonzy songbook, and while listening to this is a potent reminder of how good Broonzy's songs still sound in the 21st century, it also demonstrates the complementary talents of Dave and Phil Alvin. Dave is the hot-shot (but musically savvy) guitarist whose fiery leads and switchblade solos give the melodies a spark they wouldn't have with Phil calling all the shots, and Phil has the outsized, passionate vocal style that brings Big Bill's tales to life in a way Dave's more modest instrument can't quite match (though Dave sings as well, and doesn't embarrass himself when he steps up to the mike). Put them together, and in this context you don't get the Blasters, but you do get something that recalls a bit of the wild fun that band knew how to conjure.

It's clear the Alvins love this music and know how to mess with it in just the right way, and they don't treat Broonzy's tales of all manner of wild living like museum pieces, but as vital, living bits of American music, and that's how they sound on this album. Common Ground isn't "The Return of the Alvin Brothers" so much as a joyous continuation of the mission they launched when the Blasters first hit the stage in 1979, and if they're a little older and craggier in 2014, they clearly know how to make this stuff rock, and this is a modest triumph for one of roots rock's most fascinating partnerships. ~Mark Deming

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