AMERICAN MUSIC
THE BLASTER/DAVE ALVIN NEWSLETTER   ISSUE #33 NOV '01

Headline: Blasters CD Anthology Set
For A February 2002 Release

-- Latest news -- Dave Alvin recorded two shows with the
Guilty Men in August for a possible live album. Shows in
Santa Barbra's Labarro Theatre and The Blue Cafe in Long
Beach were recorded. The band played unreleased songs like
HIGHWAY 99, a Sonny Boy Williamson song called HELP ME and
they also did a bit of FREEBIRD with Gaffney and Joe Terry
singing. -- The Blasters Anthology on Rhino records is on
schedule for release in February. With the recent few
reunion jams of the original four Blasters at local gigs,
some have speculated that the Original Four Blasters may
reunite for one show to celebrate the release of the
Blasters Rhino anthology. Stay tuned. -- In November,
Dave produced Jill Olsen's (from country band Red Meat)
solo album. Her solo is more folk/pop music. Dave also
produced a new album for Christy McWilson due next year
on HighTone. Rick Shea played on both sessions. --  Greg
Leisz plays with jazz guitarist Bill  Frisell on his
Nonesuch/Atlantic album Blues Dream,  Frisell titled one
of his songs "Greg Leisz." It's an unusual honor. The CD
came out in January this year. -- The Mike Eldred Trio,
featuring John Bazz and Jerry Angel of the Blasters, has
released their first official album self titled (American
Music advertised a promo of it for sale last year) For
the official album on Virgin Records send $18 to Mike
Eldred Trio, PO Box 5120, Bellflower, CA 90707-5120 -- 
The Blue Shadows have finished recording a new album.
Guests include Dave Alvin, Gene Taylor, Kid Ramos, and
Aaron from Rumble King. The album is being shopped to
labels right now. Dave: "I think the record is real
good. It's rootsy but modern and noisy." - Keith Wyatt
has finished work on a guitar instructional video called
Fender Presents: Getting Started on Guitar - 2 DVDs/3
videos. The project has taken most of the year, between
planning, pre- and post-production. It will be included
in every guitar case with sales of Fender Guitars. Keith
also reports, "I'm currently working on an ear training
method book and have blues rhythm guitar and blues
soloing books as my next projects, all for Hal Leonard
Publishing."

Avalon Blues Tour: Peter Case, Dave Alvin & Bill Morrissey:
A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt.
Singer- songwriter Peter Case has just produced a new CD
called Avalon Blues on Vanguard Records, an all-star
tribute to the music of legendary blues musician Mississippi
John Hurt. The album features an all star list of performers
such as Beck, Ben Harper, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle,
John Hiatt, Victoria Williams, Taj Mahal, Chris Smither,
Mark Selby, Geoff Muldaur, Bill Morrissey, Gillian Welch,
Alvin Youngblood Hart and Peter Case with Dave Alvin. To
celebrate the albums release, three of those performers - 
Peter Case, Dave Alvin and Bill Morrissey will tour playing
songs of Hurt as well as originals inspired by the kind of
powerful acoustic blues of Mississippi John Hurt. Each
performer will play a 30-minute set and then all three will
play together. Dave feels that what would make the show
special would be to forget the original songs and play only
traditional songs.
Look for the shows on the west coast in December and the
rest of the USA in 2002.

Dave plays in Tom Waits band --October 2001
Dave Alvin: "American Cinema tech is doing a PBS show that
will feature a tribute to Nicholas Cage. Tom Waits has known
Nicholas since he was a kid, so he was asked to do a couple
songs. Tom's manager called me up and said, 'Tom wants you to
play guitar for him.' I said, 'Yeah'! We did a day of
rehearsal, then the next day we filmed it at the Beverly
Hills Hilton Hotel at a big star studded event. Larry
Taylor played bass and Steve Hodges on drums. We did one
song off  The Bone Machine album called GOIN OUT WEST.
It was rearranged as a slow blues. And another was a ballad
called TIME. Tom was great, a real sweetheart. He gets
real nervous before going on stage - more than me."