Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones Biography

Why They're Worth Watching - Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and self-described "barroom guitarist" Dave Alvin is widely considered one of the pivotal founders of the entire Americana music genre. Since forming the highly influential roots rock/R&B band The Blasters with his brother Phil in 1979, to his days with, X and The Knitters, and throughout his long and critically acclaimed solo career, Dave Alvin has mixed his varied musical and literary influences into his own unique, updated version of traditional American music. Beneath the iconoclastic reputation of Alvin and the all-star talent of his powerhouse band The Guilty Ones, there lurks the heart of Americana and roots music.Combining elements of blues, folk, R&B, rockabilly, Bakersfield country, and garage rock and roll with lyrical inspiration from local writers and poets like Raymond Chandler, Gerald Locklin and Charles Bukowski, the California native says that his songs are "just like California. A big, messy melting pot." Dave Alvin & his newest band The Guilty Ones will be touring in support of Alvin's new studio album "Eleven Eleven”, which has been described as his most driving, electric blues and rock oriented album since 2004's critically acclaimed Ashgrove. The set includes 11-tracks, featuring a host musicians Alvin had not recorded with since his days in The Blasters. The result is an album with songs rich in vivid stories, stretching from R&B royalty to labor history to Harlan County in Kentucky, with Dave's guitar work punctuating each tale, reinforcing moments of urgency, remorse and reflection.Alvin’s songs have been recorded by cutting edge contemporary roots artists such as Los Lobos, Little Milton, Joe Ely, Dwight Yoakam, James McMurtry and X, and featured in many movies and television shows including The Sopranos, True Blood, The Wire, Six Feet Under, Crybaby, Miss Congeniality, From Dusk To Dawn, and most recently on the FX series "Justified."