By Ian Saint
The governors of Texas and California are notorious for often pitting the Golden and Lone Star States against each other; but two longtime Americana music stalwarts from each state delight in cross-pollinating their cultures.
Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore met critical acclaim when they released 2018’s collaborative album Downey to Lubbock, the title paying homage to their respective SoCal and West Texas upbringings — which, for Gilmore, included attending a Buddy Holly concert. They’ve expanded that partnership with TexiCali, released June 21, which provoked the Texas Monthly to proclaim them “a modern-day Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson” — referencing the Californian and Texan, respectively, who left Nashville and ignited greater success in the Outlaw Country movement. The Texicali project, and subsequent Kessler performance with Alvin, spurred Gilmore’s Buddy Magazine July cover story:
https://buddymagazine.com/cover-story/interview-with-jimmie-dale-gilmore/
In September, Gilmore presented Alvin with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriter at the Americana Honors & Awards, staged at Nashville’s “Mother Church” Ryman Auditorium. Fellow Lifetime Achievement Award winner Dwight Yoakam (recognized for Performance) cited Alvin’s honor as the reason he attended the ceremony — Alvin’s band The Blasters was important to Yoakam’s launch in cowpunk’s heyday, and Yoakam’s cover of Alvin’s “Long White Cadillac” was a Top 40 hit on Billboard’s 1989 Country chart.
Alvin and Gilmore spoke to Buddy’s Ian Saint on the Ryman’s Red Carpet ceremony, prior to the award show. A transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.
IAN SAINT: Congratulations, Dave Alvin, for your Lifetime Achievement Award; and to Jimmie Dale Gilmore for bestowing the Americana Music Association’s honor to Dave. What does “Americana” mean to you?
DAVE ALVIN: Americana, at its best, is for oddballs like Jimmie Dale Gilmore and me. We have so many influences: country, folk, blues, rock ‘n roll, rhythm & blues, jazz, whatever. For mainstream music in Nashville — pop music that comes out of this town — they all want you to fit certain molds, and for whatever reason, good or bad, we don’t fit those molds. So it’s nice to be recognized for that; for “un-molding.”
IAN SAINT: I love the title of your new album together, TexiCali, during these divisive times. In Texas, we often hear the phrase “Don’t California my Texas,” but your record is a testament to how there might be more commonalities than one could surmise — and, of course, they’re both enormous and varied states.
DAVE ALVIN: Oh, yeah; they’re big, complicated states. But the first time I was ever in Texas, I felt right at home. There were other states where maybe I didn’t feel so much at home; but in Texas, “oh, okay, this is good. I can take this.”
JIMMIE DALE GILMORE: The same for me with California. When I first went out to California, it wasn’t foreign. I think I expected it to be, but it wasn’t.
DAVE ALVIN: Jimmie Dale’s got a great story about he got to see — and know — Lightnin’ Hopkins in California, but never saw him in Texas.
JIMMIE DALE GILMORE: Yeah. Strangely, I never saw him in Houston [where he was poet-in-residence for 35 years]. I never saw him in Austin, but we hung out with each other in Los Angeles.
IAN SAINT: I recently spoke with Beau Bridges about Topanga Canyon, where he lives, and that whole scene back in the day. [HYPERLINK: https://woub.org/2024/03/21/the-neon-highway-tells-story-of-ambition-legacy-and-heartbreak-in-country-music/] Do you have significant memories in that particular slice of California?
DAVE ALVIN: There’s a song on our new album, called “Blind Owl,” about Alan Wilson — the singer for Canned Heat. He died (at age 27 in 1970) sleeping outdoors in Topanga Canyon, so it was a pretty wild scene. There used to be a great club there, called the Topanga Corral, that was pretty wild and wooly in its day. There’s too many billionaires living in Topanga now. [laughs] But it’s where Neil Young lived while he did “Heart of Young,” the album Harvest, and all that — so it’s still got that thing.
JIMMIE DALE GILMORE: I was a fan of a lot of stuff that came out of there. But Dave and I were Ash Grove kids. [Editor’s note: Ash Grove was a folk music club on Melrose Ave. from 1958-1973.] We were there at the same time, not knowing it. So that’s how we ended up with so much in common, that we didn’t know about, because both the public and the media had kind of pigeonholed both of us in different ways — and I think maybe we did, ourselves, too. When we started doing some solo gigs together, we found there was more stuff in our background that we shared than differences.
IAN SAINT: That’s an important takeaway in these times. I’m sure there have been many common roads taken between you, and I bet some of that is documented in Buddy Magazine’s archives.
DAVE ALVIN: Oh, yeah.
IAN SAINT: Unfortunately, we lost (longtime Buddy publisher) Ron McKeown a couple weeks ago…
DAVE ALVIN: Really? Wow…
IAN SAINT: Yes. So we’re mourning that; but he leaves behind quite a legacy, and it’s an honor to speak with y’all as we keep that legacy of his beloved publication going. Congratulations on your Lifetime Achievement Award.
JIMMIE DALE GILMORE: And thank you (Buddy) for doing what you’ve done for so long.
TexiCali by Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, featuring The Guilty Ones, is out now on Yep Roc Records.
—
