Dave & Phil Alvin with the Guilty Ones
Dave & Phil Alvin with the Guilty Ones
The Art School, Glasgow
Rob Adams
Watching Dave and Phil Alvin onstage in 2014 it's hard to picture the schoolboys who, 50 years ago, pored over Big Bill Broonzy's album covers, trying to tap into the great man's blues message. Phil, whose resuscitation in Spain in 2012 brought the not-always-entirely-brotherly siblings back together again, stands stoic, looking not unlike Levon Helm in his later years, and Dave's gunslinger with guitar-instead-of-pistol moves smack of practice long past any childhood innocence.
You can hear, however, just how devoutly they worshipped Broonzy and how much their careers, and their lives, were shaped by his influence. The Broonzy songs that took up most of this set were no recreations or attempts to be their hero. This was Broonzy's music brought alive in the here and now and sung in their own voices with passion and few holds barred. The lascivious How You Want it Done simultaneously backed up Dave's assertion that it was the first rockabilly record (recorded in 1929) and hit the senses like the latest headlines, and Truckin' Little Woman grooved with conspicuous urgency.
It helps that Dave and his Guilty Ones are as road-hardened as they come, a veritable machine with a heart, with Dave and Chris Miller trading mustard-keen guitar licks and the ensemble working faded endings and sudden power surges as one behind Phil's mighty, soulful roar.
Beyond Broonzy, they evoked James Brown, with a rambunctious Please Please Please, and Johnny Ace, on Dave's superb musical biopic of the Memphis misadventurer, and through it all served up a rocking potion that made Tuesday feel indeed more like a Friday.
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