Dave Alvin

Dave Alvin - Grammy award winning singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin started his career along side his brother, Phil, in the seminal roots rock band The Blasters that they formed together in 1979. Despite being heavily influenced by blues, r+b, rockabilly and old country music, the band became a fixture on the early 80s Los Angeles punk/alternative scene before becoming a respected national touring act. As the songwriter for the band, Dave wrote songs like Marie Marie, Long White Cadillac and Border Radio, that have become modern roots music classics covered by artists like Dwight Yoakam. Buckwheat Zydeco, Los Lobos and many others.

Always willing to push his musical boundaries, Dave left The Blasters in 1986 and joined the iconic punk band, X, for one album that included his song, Fourth Of July. His other side projects have included albums with groups like The Knitters, The Flesheaters, The Pleasure Barons and The Gun Club as well as writing/producing the songs for the soundtrack of John Waters film CryBaby and Allison Ander's Border Radio. Dave's original songs have also been featured in TV shows likeThe Sopranos, Girls, Justified and The Wire as well as in movies like Dusk Til Dawn and Bull Durham.

Dave released his first solo album, Romeo's Escape, in 1987 and in years since has released over a dozen critically acclaimed albums like King Of California, AshGrove, Eleven Eleven and his Grammy award winning collection of American Folk songs, Public Domain. He's also been fortunate to record with some of his musical heroes like Little Milton, Tom Waits, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Bobby Rush and Sonny Burgess, while songs from his solo career have been recorded by songwriters Dave admires like James McMurtry, Joe Ely, Terry Allen, Marshall Crenshaw, The Texas Tornados and Alejandro Escovedo. In the past few years, Dave reunited with his brother Phil for two blues albums including the Grammy nominated, Common Ground, as well as recording the album, Downey To Lubbock, with Texas music legend, Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Dave has been touring practically non-stop from his days with The Blasters through the decades with his various "Guilty" bands (Guilty Men, Guilty Women, Guilty Ones) and is very excited to hit the road with The Third Mind. "I've been longing to do an experimental album like The Third Mind and to do a tour with such eclectic musicians like the ones in this group since I first saw Jimi Hendrix in concert when I was 12 years old." says Alvin. He then added, "This should some interesting fun."

I had a crazy idea and was looking for musicians who perhaps didn’t think it was so insane – Dave Alvin