Written by Jim Bille

Dave Alvin and Jimmy Dale Gilmore are at it again with a newly released album, Texicali, and a concert tour to boot.

The duo made a stop in Houston backed by Alvin’s main band, The Guilty Ones, on Thursday night to showcase their newest songs for the fans in attendance at one of Houston’s finest live music venues, The Heights Theater.

Alvin’s long time band, The Guilty Ones, include Chris Miller on “fancy guitar” – as Alvin puts it, Brad Fordham on bass and Lisa Pankratz who holds down the beat with her intense drum work.

Texicali is the duo’s second collaboration and it continues with the same theme of their musical partnership as their previous release, Downey To Lubbock. The show was laced heavily with tunes from Texicali totaling nine selections along with a few others from Alvin and Gilmore’s individual careers.

The show opened with “We’re Still Here”, a duet that obviously played on each singer’s age and longevity in the business and signaled a true comradery between these two iconic troubadours.

As always, Dave Alvin will shake a show up with some of his blistering guitar work. No exceptions were made during this evening especially with Alvin and Gilmore’s version of an obscure Stonewall Jackson tune from the early 1960’s. Alvin described their version of Jackson’s “Why I’m Walking” as how the Blaster’s may have performed it in the 1980’s. True to form, Alvin intro’d the song with that classic Blaster’s era guitar sound and continued to augment the number with more incredible rockin’ guitar work throughout the song.

Alvin mentioned that Jimmy Dale’s wife, Janet, had come across a song the he had penned and recorded in the mid 1960’s – buried in a box and forgotten about it!

After dusting the tune off, the two decided to record and feature “Trying To Be Free”.  In a bit of fascinating back-story, Gilmore explained to the audience that it was demo tape that Buddy Holly’s father actually financed at the time for Gilmore when he was trying to establish a recording career. As fresh as this song sounded it could have been a hit for Gilmore years ago.

“Blind Owl”, a tune penned in honor of Canned Heat’s Allen “Blind Owl” Wilson incorporated a driving boogie shuffle sound that was a fitting tribute to late guitarist’s genius. Alvin took the opportunity with this number to show how southern California blues are meant to be played as he applied his classic rocking / blues guitar touch throughout the song.

Other selections from Texicali included, “Southwest Chief”, “Roll Around”, “Borderland”, “Down the 285” and “Death of the Last Stripper”.

As mentioned, the show was also highlighted with songs from the individual artist’s extensive catalogs. A couple of Gilmore’s signature songs like “Dallas” and “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown” were featured. Alvin contributed “Long White Cadillac”, “Johnny Ace is Dead” and “Dry River” to name a few.

The show went just over two hours with the four song encore which included a slightly revised version of The Blasters “Marie Marie”. Gilmore was featured on harmonica on this number but the main attraction was Lisa Pankratz with a commanding performance on the drums showcasing her talent with an incredibly dominant solo of her own.

The show was a musical feast for the ears that served up plenty of blues, folk, country and of course sizzling rock and roll.

This live show is highly recommended for fans of Dave Alvin and Jimmy Dale Gilmore along with The Guilty Ones and should not be missed!