Dave Alvin at City Winery

As teenagers, David Alvin and his older brother, Phil Alvin, attended rockabilly and country music concerts in and around their home town of Downey, California. In 1979, the brothers formed the roots rock band The Blasters. Dave Alvin left the Blasters in 1986 for a solo career and also briefly played guitar in X, the Flesh Eaters, the Knitters, the Pleasure Barons, and other projects based in Los Angeles, California. David Alvin's fourth solo album, the acoustic King of California in 1994, became the album that established him as a singer/songwriter. An album of traditional folk and blues classics in 2000, Public Domain: Songs From the Wild Land, earned him a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Alvin's most recent project, Downey to Lubbock, a collaboration with country singer Jimmie Dale Gilmore, was released on June 1, 2018.

David Alvin celebrated the 25th anniversary of his biggest-selling album, King of California, with a reissue and a concert tour. At City Winery tonight, Alvin performed the entire album in sequence, remarking that unlike other performers, he also would perform a bonus track ("Riverbed Rag") from the reissued album. Light-hearted quips throughout the performance drew the audience deeper into the songs, which on their own were extraordinarily soft and hushed. On many songs, Alvin had the accompaniment of multi-instrumentalist Greg Liesz, who had produced the original album, and opening act Christy McWilson, but even so the overall tone remained meditative. The anecdotes brought the songs to life, as when he shared that he wrote a country song that he intended for George Jones but was rejected. "If I have done anything in my life, I have written a song that was too country for George Jones," Alvin concluded when introducing the country heartbreaker "Every Night About This Time." After performing the last track from the album, the main set was over; Alvin performed four other tracks as encores. The purpose of the evening, to recreate and make vivid a vintage album, succeeded, but it sure would have been a "blast" to hear Alvin perform some white-hot rock and roll songs as well.

Setlist:

1. King of California
2. Barn Burning
3. Fourth of July (X song)
4. Goodbye Again
5. East Texas Blues
6. Every Night About This Time
7. Riverbed Rag
8. Bus Station
9. Mother Earth (Memphis Slim cover)
10. Blue Wing (Tom Russell cover)
11. Little Honey (with verse of "Who Do You Love")
12. (I Won't Be) Leaving
13. What Am I Worth
14. Border Radio (The Blasters song)

Encore:

1. Marie Marie (The Blasters song) (verse while tuning a guitar)
2. Abilene
3. Kern River (Merle Haggard cover)
4. Dry River