Ashgrove

Dave Alvin

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 15, 2004)
• Original Release Date: June 15, 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yep Roc Records
• ASIN: B00028HOEA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,891 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

As a teenager Dave Alvin frequented legendary L.A. blues clubs like the Ashgrove, where he soaked up the licks and the spirit of T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner. Alvin's first collection of new songs in six years repays these debts with the meanest electric blues he's ever played--and some of his most vivid, and most elegantly arranged, character studies. "Out of Control" nails the seediest of L.A. night-crawlers, the autobiographical "Nine Volt Heart" reveals the wonder of growing up with soul-era radio, and "Everett Ruess," the story of a desert drifter who happily disappears forever, questions how much we'll ever understand the human heart. Song for song, Ashgrove is Alvin's best record since King of California. All the narrative poise, lyrical soul, and guitar muscle of an American music master is here. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 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 (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 7 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)

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...

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alvin reflects on tough lives with tough, bluesy songs, July 10, 2004

By	R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Dave Alvin has produced yet another set of magnificent songs. This one's different from BLACKJACK DAVID, his 1998 mainly acoustic collection. ASHGROVE has about 1/2 singer/songwriter style songs, but also about 1/2 harder-edged electric blues songs, not that they don't also have great Alvin lyrics. In fact it sounds like it might have ended up being two quite different albums, but Dave decided to blend them. Whether or not that speculation is on target, the alternation of heavier blues numbers (Ashgrove, Black Sky, Out of Control, Sinful Daughter, Black Haired Girl) with more contemplative folk/country songs (Rio Grande, Nine Volt Heart, Everett Ruess, The Man In the Bed, Somewhere In Time) works to great effect. My favorites, Black Sky, Rio Grande, and Somewhere In Time are among the best he's ever done, but there are no bad tracks and the overall effect is quite powerful.

Dave has clearly been working on his electric blues guitar, with some great influences -- he sounds like Son Seals on "Black Sky"! Greg Leisz plays guitar and produces, and is indispensible once again for the overall sound. One of the best albums of 2004, without a doubt.