Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – TexiCali (2024)

Review: Not that they needed any introduction to roots music fans, but on the title song of their first collaboration, 2018’s Downey to Lubbock, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore succinctly laid out their long-established musical personas and points of origin. The guitar-slinging Alvin: “I’m a wild blues Blaster from a Southern California town.” “Hippie country singer” Gilmore: “I’m an old Flatlander from the great high plains … West Texas wind blows through my veins.” The title of their new album, TexiCali, again plays up their geographical roots, and like the combination of words in that title, their individual styles continue to mesh smoothly. But there are some differences. Downey to Lubbock contained only two originals (plus some added lyrics to Brownie McGhee’s “Walk On.”), and the duo was backed mostly by West Coast roots session cats. TexiCali contains six top-notch originals, and the backing throughout is by Alvin’s excellent band, The Guilty Ones. Alvin and fellow guitarist Chris Miller provide plenty of fretboard fireworks, while guests Bukka Allen and Skip Edwards add keyboard coloring. Gilmore’s distinctive warble makes everything he sings seem connected to a long tradition, adding heft and vitality to the ringing country-rock of his own “Borderland,” the blues shuffle of Blind Willie McTell’s “Broke Down Engine,” the vaguely reggaeish lilt of Butch Hancock’s “Roll Around,” and a revved-up take on the Stonewall Jackson country chestnut “Why I’m Walking.” That voice and style also blend well with Alvin’s nicotine-scarred baritone when they share vocals, as on Brownie McGhee’s “Betty and Dupree,” Josh White’s “Down the 285,” and “Death of the Last Stripper,” an exquisite country-soul ballad by Alvin with Terry Allen and Jo Harvey Allen. Alvin takes the lead on his own “Southwest Chief,” a ruminative train song he initially cut for the 2021 collection Americana Railroad. Here it’s accented by Gilmore’s lonesome harmonica and a slide solo by Miller that underscores the longing to roam at the heart of the song. — nodepression

Track List: 01. Borderland 02. Southwest Chief 03. Broke Down Engine 04. Trying To Be Free 05. Blind Owl 06. Death Of The Last Stripper 07. Roll Around 08. Betty And Dupree 09. Why I'm Walking 10. Down The 285 11. We're Still Here

Media Report: Genre: americana, folk-rock Origin: USA
Format: FLAC Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec Bit rate mode: Variable Channel(s): 2 channels Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz Bit depth: 16 bits Compression mode: Lossless Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)

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