Folk Fest fave Dave Alvin has a really thoughtful, evolved blues album here, shades of Dire Straits, Gordon Lightfoot and Springsteen everywhere.

Let's just call it Alvin's sound, though, used in an easygoing, sometimes exhausted look at the world around him, full of girls behind windshield glass and lost loves.

"And I'm thinkin' of friends and lovers and how they come and go, like look-alike houses on the side of the road, full of everyday people tryin' to get ahead, tryin' to find a reason just to get out of bed," he sings, and you feel it when he does.

If Disney ever makes a movie about heroin addicts, Alvin should do the voice of the singing ashtray. By the way, Disney, if you do that, you owe me some money.

If you're a blues fan looking for something cerebral and snappy, listen to the first three tracks and I bet you'll be pulling out your wallet.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
[[+3]]

Alvin's sound