The king of California!

A fourth-generation Californian, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and self-described "barroom guitarist" Dave Alvin is widely considered one of the pivotal founders of the entire Americana music genre. Since forming the highly influential roots rock/R&B band The Blasters, and throughout his long and critically acclaimed solo career, Dave Alvin has mixed his varied musical and literary influences into his own unique, updated version of traditional American music. Combining elements of blues, folk, R&B, rockabilly, Bakersfield country, and garage rock and roll with lyrical inspiration from local writers and poets like Raymond Chandler, Gerald Locklin and Charles Bukowski, Dave says that his songs are "just like California. A big, messy melting pot." Dave has new music on the way; his song "Harlan County Line" was recently premiered on the FX series "Justified."