Ashgrove

Dave Alvin | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yep Roc Records
• ASIN: B00028HOEA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,676 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven but Contains a Number of Classic Songs, July 27, 2004

By 

John Standiford (Cypress, California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ashgrove (Audio CD)

I've been a big Dave Alvin fan for awhile and continue to think that he is one of America's best songwriters and he's an excellent live performer too.

The new Ashgrove CD contains some of his best writing but it's hard to get into a groove when listening to this CD because the song styles shift rather abruptly. This is an outgrowth of what many of us like about Dave Alvin. He is a great electric rock and roller but he is also a thoughtful acoustic songwriter. In the past, his CD's have focused on one or the other. For example, his live Continental Club CD is a rock and roll CD while Blackjack David was more of an acoustic CD.

Ashgrove tries to be both and it succeeds for the most part. In Nine Volt Heart and Everett Ruess, Alvin has written two incredible folk classics that I will never tire of hearing. The song, The Man in the Bed is another acoustic winner. In between these songs are more rocking songs like Out of Control and the title track that show off Dave's electric blues guitar prowess. It just seems that the shifts are so abrupt that it's hard to listen through it from beginning to end. I guess it's the perfect CD for the IPOD generation where you can take the songs you like and listen to them in the order in which they make sense.

In any case, Dave should be congratulated for writing more great songs, and if you get the chance, see him live. His touring band is comprised of different people than on this CD and they are great musicians for the road just as the studio team led by Greg Liesz did a great job in backing Dave for this CD.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Distant Lights of People Down Below, December 4, 2004

By 

Steve Dossey (Somewhere just beyond or before the crossroads) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ashgrove (Audio CD)

I just saw Dave Alvin perform many of the songs off this CD (a pitiful Santa Fe turn out). When I played the CD, it wasn't up to his live performance. Yet as I listened to it more, I grew to appreciate the textures portrayed of working class lives like the folk music of old set in the modern world. Dave Alvin plays great rock guitar and his voice holds up well as a seasoned troubador. My favorite is "Out of Control" a song filled with darkness, a 9mm pistol, an ex wife in a trailor turned to God but still willing to get it on, and "baby" performing for some chump in a cheap motel...Then there is "The Man In The Bed Isn't Me" a great song about old age and dying....You believe these songs..there is nothing phoney about them...

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ashgrove Is The Real Thing, August 7, 2005

By 

David Sandino (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ashgrove (Audio CD)

In a music world gone astray with false musicians and American Idols, it is comforting to know that the real thing exists. Dave Alvin is the real thing. Mr. Alvin inhabits the exclusive group of gifted American singer-songwriter guitarists, which include the likes of Springsteen, Dylan, and Cash, who tell stories about this big country and its ordinary folks in songs the radio mostly seems to miss.

To be sure, the radio does miss Dave Alvin's material. And we are shortchanged because of it. Mr. Alvin has a deep, resonant voice mellowed by perhaps a few too many cigarettes, is a virtuoso guitarist, and has a wonderful pen for music and lyrics. Mr. Alvin generally delivers excellent CDs ("Public Domain" won a Grammy) and "Ashrgrove" is no exception.

"Ashgrove" is really two CDs in one with its ten cuts shifting back and forth in song style between blues-rock and country-folk. I like both sounds on the CD, but I find the country-folk songs particularly strong musically and lyrically.

In "Rio Grande" Mr. Alvin tells the story of the restless pursuit of a lost love, which, for those that have experienced it know, rolls endlessly like a river to the sea. "Nine Volt Heart" is wonderful song about family life built on the potency of music on the radio. Maybe this is Mr. Alvin gentle reminder that music does matter and can make a difference in the quality of life.

"The Man In The Bed" contemplates the inevitability of growing old from the view of a man whose body fails, but whose mind remains sharp. He thus becomes trapped in his body, trying to convince everyone, including himself, that the person in the bed is an imposter. In "Somewhere In Time," Mr. Alvin muses about the interrelation between thoughts, time and true love and seemingly transforms them into a physical law of nature: even if disconnected for the present moment, they will all reunite at some other instant.

The title track describes the time when American music was polished in live clubs. Ashgrove is a burned down blues club that Mr. Alvin tries to revisit. By bringing us back to Ashgrove, Mr. Alvin also perhaps tries to resurrect music to point that it really does matter. This is an appropriate trip for Mr. Alvin to lead, because his music does matter in this excellent CD.