CD Review: Dave Alvin - West of the West

Have you ever had a friend who was intelligent, charming, and funny but tended to overstay his welcome? Dave Alvin's new album West of the West is like that great guy who just never realizes the party is over.

The album features Dave Alvin at his best, performing, with a four-piece backup band, slow country ballad covers of favorite songs penned by Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Jerry Garcia, and other luminaries who've left an indelible mark on the music world. West of the West is similar in style to Alvin's Grammy Award-winning Public Domain. His vocal style, cultivated from years working with The Blasters, X, and their side project The Knitters, is deep, smooth, and smoky and infiltrates your soul like a shot of Jack Daniels. His interpretations of "Redneck Friend," "Here in California," "Sonora's Death Row," and "Surfer Girl" are tasty, sensual treats filled with subtle, solid emotion that transfer the listener to a spiritual, almost elegiac, altered state of mind. There were moments while listening that I imagined myself adrift on a raft in a cove of some idyllic paradise.

The production is flawless. Every strum and pick of Alvin's guitar strings reverberates with amazing clarity; the dubbed vocals are so clear it’s easy to believe that Alvin is crooning only a few feet away from you. The rhythm section remains balanced and supportive in the background, adding shades of lustrous color to each song.

While West of the West is every bit the classic that Public Domain is, the album falters slightly in that Alvin and his producer Greg Leisz don't know when to quit. The album is beautiful, but one can only take the simple rhythm structures Alvin pursues for so long and except for some mild structural changes to the originals, every song has basically the same rhythm and the same progressions. Admittedly, it must have been extremely difficult for Alvin and Leisz to edit songs for crafting the final product. But it would be a shame if listeners lost interest because the album is a little too long for its own good.

Even though the album is pretty long, it's still a tremendous artistic achievement. Dave Alvin is another vocalist who has the courage to grow from and supersede his days as The Blasters front man where he conquered the early styles of Jerry Lee Lewis and Joe Ely. He brought about a heightened awareness of rockabilly and roots rock like no other, and on West of the West, Alvin opens another vein of his incredible roots rock style. And my, what a rich vein it is.

Article Author: Larry Sakin

Larry Sakin is a former music executive and non-profit medical organization administrator. He advocates for literacy issues and provides advocacy training for grassroots and non-profit groups around the country.

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