Latest News ( Continued from page 1 ) --  A New Highway softcover with additional content and a History of Slash Records (with interviews of Phil and Dave) has been shelved.   II III    Dave recorded a new song called BLIND OWL with Canned Heat for their new album. II III   It's rumored The Knitters will reunite for a show at the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas in March.  II III   Dave Alvin will be going into the studio in Austin, Texas in late March to produce blueswoman Carolyn Wonderland's second album. II III   In June 2024, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore will release their second album called TexiCali. II III    Dave Alvin will be one of the featured artists on Long Distance Love, a tribute album to Little Feat founder Lowell George. The album is scheduled for release in May. Dave plays on and sings A APOLITICAL BLUES, a song which appeared on Sailin' Shoes, the 1972 album by Little Feat. Proceeds from the album will go to the Sweet Relief, Musicians Fund. A nonprofit charity, the fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing physical or mental health issues, disability or age-related problems. II III    In another Sweet Relief fundraiser, Dave also will appear on a tribute album to drummer Don Heffington, who backed him on several albums. Dave will perform AVENUE C and the album is tentatively titled Tonight, I'll Go Down Swinging. The release date has not been determined, but it will be out later in 2024. II III      Dave was one of the featured performers on a Tribute to Ramblin' Jack Elliot held on Jan. 28 at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco. He sang KING OF CALIFORNIA and Tim Hardin's IF I WERE A CARPENTER. The show was a benefit for Sweet Relief. Others on the bill included Jackson Browne, Steve Earle and Rickie Lee Jones. Dave and Ramblin' Jack toured together with Tom Russell and Chris Smither as part of the Monsters of Folk in 1998. Dave was a guest artist on and wrote liner notes for The Long Ride, a Ramblin' Jack album released in 1999.   II III    Dave Alvin and the Guilty Ones opened a show for Los Lobos at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Nov. 18. The concert was part of the band's celebration of its 50th anniversary. Dave joined Los Lobos and played guitar on MARIE MARIE. The clip can be seen on YouTube. II III    Work is continuing on Palomania, a documentary on the famed Los Angeles club that presented concerts between 1949 and 1995.  Dave was interviewed about his memories of the club for the film. Others interviewed for the film include James Intveld, Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. No release date for the film has been announced. II III  Los Lobos, which includes former Blasters saxophonist Steve Berlin, was named to the California Hall of Fame on Jan. 11. The band is part of the 17th class chosen for the hall. Others in this year's class include the Go-Gos and filmmaker Anna DuVernay. The induction ceremony will be held in February. --AM 

Dave Alvin: When Shelly left, three guys took over as manager - Phil, Alex Oakley, and Art Fein. Alex was a great guy, but not qualified as a manager. But he would do anything that Phil told him to do. He was smart and would tell Phil when he was messing up. Phil wanted the band to manage ourselves in the same way that we produced our own records. It worked out on the first Slash record, but it didn't work out well sonically on Non Fiction. As much as we still got good press and TV appearances, we did lose out big time. The Blasters were known as a great live act, so people still came out and we generated press without needing a publicist because we were well liked. We did shows and didn't need tour support because we were always selling out. And this continued into when Shelly returned as our manager and on to when I left the band.
     When Phil was managing, he was smart about many things, but some he was wrong on. In recent years, Phil and I have talked and he admitted he was wrong in those days. The record label did not like Art or Alex, even though dealing with Warner Bros. was part of the manager's job - they were the interface with the record label. Where Shelly could talk their language, Art and Alex didn't. If you're selling millions of records, the label doesn't have to like your manager, but in our case, Art would go in with a list of demands and they would say, screw you. So, for the Non Fiction album, Warner Bros. records did nothing for us.     
     Everything good around that time, we had generated ourselves. The tour with Eric Clapton happened because their manager liked us and thought we were a great band who brings people. It wasn't Warner Bros. pulling strings. We could just as well have been dead to Warners at that time.
     So, our management team rented a four-room office in Hollywood. One for the receptionist and one each for Phil, Alex and Art. Every day, they would all be there at 8 am except Phil, who got up at 4 pm, so nothing could get finalized without Phil's approval [laughs]. We'd be getting gig offers at 9 am, three hours difference from the East Coast and no one could get ahold of Phil until the end of the day. We lost a lot of work that way. So, I led a mutiny against Alex, Art and Phil.  Bateman, Bazz and I had a band meeting and told Phil we were firing him as manager. We added in that his dress on stage was not performance quality. So, the next gig, Phil started wearing a tuxedo to protest what we said [laughs]. Phil's solo album was also his way of saying "I don't need you guys." But I still believe that his solo album Unsung Stories is Phil's greatest achievement. I'm so proud of that record. It's really great.
     Once we got Phil to agree that he wasn't gonna manage the band, we met with some big-time managers. We met with the Cars manager in Boston and Ric Okasek almost produced us. We met with the Ramones manager. I was thinking, "This is great. This guy gets us, we're gonna go places!" Then Phil talked about "gross vs. net" when negotiating their fee. Your average manager gets 20% of the gross - 20% of everything off the top. Their job is to quadruple what you make. It's always a gamble on a deal and sometimes it pays off

for a band and sometimes it doesn't. The manager is working for us and shouldn't lose. Phil asked them if they were willing to work off the net. They would say "no" and I would think: "Fuck we missed a great chance." So, you're not gonna make big money unless you have a big manager. It's rare. Dwight Yoakam's manager was connected to the biggest country booking agency, which helped him a lot. The Go-Go's played things really smart with a good record producer, a supportive record company and a manager with some particular inroads to things. So those things really count. Finally, it got worked out with Shelly the second time around that she would work for 15% of the gross not 20%. So once again Shelly returned to having meetings with the record label, and Warner Bros. started doing stuff for us again.

Dave Alvin: When I was in the hospital, I thought about all these goals for myself. I wanted to do another Third Mind album and an actual tour (the first was cancelled during the pandemic), then another album with Jimmie Dale. After that I'd like to do a Dave Alvin record and if everything aligns, another one with Phil. I'm a really lucky guy to be able to play music right now. I survived the pandemic layoff and cancer to still come back to make records and tour. I'm thankful that I have great people around me.
     The new album with Jimmie Dale will be out in June 2024 and is called TexiCali. There will be a lot more originals on this one. You'll recognize a few songs we've been playing live like DEATH OF THE LAST STRIPPER and BLIND OWL. I recorded BLIND OWL for the Canned Heat album with lyrics relating to Canned Heat. I decided to record it again with different lyrics. Also, there's a song we were doing last tour called WE'RE STILL HERE that Jimmie and I wrote. There will be a new version of SOUTHWEST CHIEF, which I did on the train album that I thought the lyrics weren't really finished for. The song that was released a while ago as a digital single BORDERLAND, a few Jimmie Dale originals, and a Blind Willie McTell cover. There's a few things on here that could sound as if they were early Blasters tracks  - we got Jimmie to rock out a few times.
     It was really nice to use the Guilty Ones on these sessions. The record has a great vibe and it really shows off how great they are. In the past it was geographically difficult to get us all together to record. I normally record with L.A. based musicians in L.A. at Craig Parker Adam's or the new one that the Third Mind recorded at with Will Golden at Sir Tiger studio but now that got shut down. Craig Parker Adams studio is still here, but we're limited to overdubs and mixing, but no live loud tracking. So, we did TexiCali in Dripping Springs, TX. Jimmie, Brad and Lisa all live in Texas and Chris Miller just moved back to Lockhart, Texas. It's a town that reminds me of Austin in 1980. We're all on this new album.   
We will try to tour in support of this in the summer. Of course everything is contingent on my cancer. I'm fine right now but they are checking me every 2 ½ months.    -- Am

     Well, here we are at 30 years of publishing American Music: The Blasters Dave Alvin newsletter. So that's an average of 3 newsletters per year. There was a 25^th anniversary, which was overshadowed by the 40^th anniversary of the Blasters. That was a fun issue in June 2019 in which seven of the Blasters told their own history of the band.
     In the past I've acknowledged the musicians, management, crew, ect. who have fully supported and respected our crazy fandom of this American Music. This time I'd like to thank the staff of the newsletter. Tom Wilk has been the main writer of the newsletter since May of 1999, so happy 25^th to you Tom. He has consistently come up with interesting angles to write about our American Music, people to interview, and he is the catalyst that keeps me on my toes to keep the newsletter coming out on a reasonable release schedule. He spends a lot of time keeping his finger on the pulse collecting the latest news. Then to my copy editors Nick Cristiano, Craig Frischkorn, and the love of my life, Lesah Smith for corrections and support.
     This newsletter would have stopped years ago if it wasn't for you, the readers who send me messages saying how much you enjoy the interviews and minutiae of American Music. So, thank you so much.
     A very old website still exists that I put up the newsletters on. It has been hacked a few times, looks ancient, and costs too much. But it's for a few readers who I've known for 30 years who don't do social media. Facebook is where 98% of the readership is. I can't promise that the website is going to last much longer, but I do have an email list in which I send out PDFs of each newsletter to some of the longtime readers. You can get on that by emailing davistb@aol.com.
     There's not much more to say other than: "Let's keep rockin' and rollin'."