For anyone familiar with Dave Alvin's long, career, it's amazing that his first Grammy came only last year for his traditional folk CD, Public Domain.

"What amazed me was that it showed up at all," says Alvin with a laugh, explaining they send you the real trophy in the mail.

"So until the actual Grammy showed up I was still waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me."

Despite the fact that Alvin has spent many of the past 25 years outside of the mainstream -- especially in the '80s with the L.A. roots rock band The Blasters, and later with punk group X -- his uncertainty about the Grammy wasn't born out of his cynicism towards the music industry but about his own talents.

"It's so unreal it would be like Cindy Crawford calling me up for a date -- you hope that kind of thing happens, but you don't expect it to.

"The one thing you learn as a professional musician is don't count your chickens not only until they hatch but until you've eaten them."

That's incredible really because with those bands, and with his solo career, Alvin has earned the respect of musicians -- he's also a noted producer -- and roots music fans alike.

His latest album, Out In California, is a live disc recorded with his backing band The Guilty Men, who will also be joining him for his show tonight at the Night Gallery.

The album, made up of an acoustic show and one that's much more electric, does a great job of pleasing what he sees as his two distinct audiences: Fans of his quieter side and "those who like the loud, sweaty Dave."

The latter will be happy to know that in the can is a live Blasters CD recorded when they reunited for a handful of shows in March.

"I came away from those reunion shows thinking, 'My God, if we had been this good back then, we would have been millionaires,' " Alvin says with a chuckle.