The Cedar Presents
DAVE ALVIN & JIMMIE DALE GILMORE and The Guilty Ones with Dead Rock West
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 / Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 7:30 PM
All Ages
Seated
This show is sold out.
This is a seated show with general admission, first-come-first-served seating. The Cedar is happy to reserve seats for patrons who require special seating accommodations. To request seating or other access accommodations, please go to our Access page.
LISTEN
ABOUT THIS SHOW
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore take us To TexiCali and The Cedar is honored to host the ride! The Americana heroes are back with a tour inspired by the name of their upcoming new album...Behind blistering blues licks, TexiCali doubles as a road trip across Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s beloved home states and the memories within, honoring shared musical influences, friends gone too soon, and all they’ve endured along the way.
"Borderland" - Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore (feat. The Guilty Ones) (Official Audio) - Video courtesy f Dave Alvin’s Official YouTube Channel.
DAVE ALVIN & JIMMIE DALE GILMORE
When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement.“I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Gilmore answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.”
Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album Texicali. Due out June 21, 2024 on Yep Roc Records, Texicali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore).
The album’s geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. The 11 songs on Texicali also connect the duo’s shared fondness for a broad range of American music forms. On their own, both have been prominent artists for decades. A philosophical songwriter with a captivating, almost mystical voice, Gilmore co-founded influential Lubbock group the Flatlanders in the early 1970s. Alvin first drew attention as a firebrand guitarist and budding young songwriter with Los Angeles roots-rockers the Blasters in the early 1980s. Gilmore is primarily known for left-of-center country music, while Alvin’s compass points largely toward old-school blues. But there’s a lot of ground to cover beyond those foundations, and both artists also are well-known for transcending genre limitations. So it’s not surprising that they’ve spiked Texicali with cosmic folk narratives, deep R&B grooves and even swinging reggae rhythms. “There’s such a strange variety through the whole thing,” Gilmore says. “And I love that.”
They’re both quick to credit the musicians who joined them in the studio as crucial to the sound and spirit of the album. On Downey To Lubbock, they recorded primarily in Los Angeles with a crew that included ringers such as the late Don Heffington on drums and Van Dyke Parks on accordion. This time, though, Alvin’s longtime rhythm section of drummer Lisa Pankratz and bassist Brad Fordham played a larger role, along with guitarist Chris Miller and keyboardist Bukka Allen. “After the time we spent touring, Jimmie and I became members of this band,” Alvin says. “The band can play just about anything, which the album shows off.”
Texicali also found Alvin and Gilmore increasingly focusing on original songs. Among them are “Trying To Be Free,” which Gilmore wrote more than 50 years ago; “Southwest Chief,” a collaboration between Alvin and the late Bill Morrissey; and “Death of the Last Stripper,” which Alvin wrote with Terry Allen and his wife Jo Harvey Allen. Just as important, however, are the choices they made for non-original material. The covers on Texicali include “Roll Around” by Gilmore’s longtime friend Butch Hancock; “Broke Down Engine” and “Betty And Dupree” from blues greats Blind Willie McTell and Brownie McGhee, respectively; and Stonewall Jackson’s “That’s Why I’m Walking,” which marries Gilmore’s country croon to a New Orleans R&B arrangement. Gilmore says he loves New Orleans music, “but it’s not the music I play.” Dave slyly counters: “It is now!”
To learn more about Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore:
Dead Rock West
DEAD ROCK WEST -- the proudly Californian alt-country rock group fronted by Cindy Wasserman and Frank Lee Drennen, have been releasing critically acclaimed records for 20 years now, working with Americana legends like Peter Case and John Doe of X and with guests
such as Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Exene Cervenka (X), Rob Wasserman (Lou Reed, Bob Weir) and Mark Olson (The Jayhawks). From their debut Richard Dodd (Tom Petty, Wilco) mixed HONEY & SALT, to their Omnivore release MORE LOVE produced by John Doe, and the Mark Linett (Beach Boys, Los Straightjackets) produced ITS EVERLY TIME!, Dead Rock West have defied categorization.
Within their winding harmonies and complex arrangements you hear the deep influence of folk-gospel group The Louvin Brothers, the rock and roll power of The Plimsouls and a deep understanding of the immense influence that California’s own The Sons of The Pioneers hold over all that is Country Music. Dead Rock West have made it all their own. Wasserman and Drennen’s achingly beautiful signature vocals and harmonies sit within a finely etched rock, alt-country and pop setting. Randy Lewis of Los Angeles Times’ Pop & Hiss noted their song ‘Boundless Fearless Love,’ is “set to a propellant track that’s part R.E.M., part Tom Petty and part Neil Young...” The sound is both contemporary and timeless.
Says John Doe about them: “Somehow Cindy & Frank connect the dots between '70 country & '60 soul music. They are a modern day Gram & Emmylou singing songs that Otis & Carla wouldsing.”
To learn more about Dead Rock West
