Guitar great Dave Alvin brings psychedelic supergroup the Third Mind to the Bay Area
Legendary roots-music guitarist and songwriter Dave Alvin bring his exploratory new project the Third Mind to the Bay Area for four Northern California shows in Auburn, Santa Cruz, Sonoma and San Francisco.
Alvin got his start making a unique mix of rockabilly, country, early rock and roll, blues and R&B with the Blasters, the band he started with his brother Phil in Downey, California in the late '70s. Mentored by blues vocalist Big Joe Turner (who the brothers would follow from gig to gig in Los Angeles), the two brothers were as seasoned as a pair of musicians in their 20s could be when the Blasters came together with drummer Bill Bateman and bassist John Bazz.
The new band would record it's debut independent album American Music over two days in a living room studio, bashing out a mix of originals and songs by the likes of Billy Haley and Jimmie Rogers that wiped away the boundaries between roots-music styles. Along with country/rockabilly-influenced punk group X and East LA contemporaries Los Lobos, the Blasters brought a sense of history to the sonic stew of the Los Angeles scene. The band's reputation as a firebrand live act led to tour dates with acts as varied as psychobilly icons the Cramps, country heroes Asleep at the Wheel and '70s rock favorites Queen.
The band would sign to Slash/Warner Bros. for their acclaimed eponymous sophomore album in 1981, a record that established the Blasters as one of the top rising rock bands in the U.S. That same year, the guitarist contributed to the seminal 1981 album by songwriter Chris Desjardins and his all-star band the Flesh Eaters -- which featured X's rhythm section of John Doe (bass) and DJ Bonebrake (playing marimba and assorted percussion) alongside Blasters drummer Bateman and future Los Lobos member Steve Berlin on saxophone -- entitled A Minute To Pray, a Second to Die.
Two more hit records for the Blasters -- Non Fiction in 1983 and Hard Line two years later -- would follow before Dave Alvin departed for his own successful solo career. He would also regularly work with other musicians, taking over as lead guitarist in X around the same time he left the Blasters, playing with the acoustic roots X side project the Knitters and touring with raunchy country/punk singers Mojo Nixon and Country Dick Montana as the Pleasure Barons.
Alvin's more recent efforts have teamed the guitarist with a variety of co-conspirators. He has worked extensively with backing band the Guilty Women and reunited with his brother for a couple of albums featuring blues covers, toured with the Flesh Eaters and recorded the band's first album in decades -- 2019's I Used to Be Pretty -- and recorded an acclaimed 2018 collaboration with noted songwriter Jimmie Dale Gilmore entitled Downey to Lubbock.
He also founded his all-star project the Third Mind that found him using what the guitarist described as "the Miles Davis technique," entering the recording studio without rehearsal or prepared arrangements and playing extended psychedelic versions of songs by Alice Coltrane, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Roky Erickson's 13th Floor Elevators with a line-up featuring bassist Victor Krummenacher (Camper Van Beethoven, Cracker, Monks of Doom), guitarist David Immergluck (Counting Crows, Monks of Doom, John Hiatt), and drummer Michael Jerome (Richard Thompson, Better Than Ezra). The band's eponymous debut was released on Yep Rock Records in 2020, but plans for the band to tour were thwarted by the pandemic.
The group would reconvene to record a second album -- The Third Mind 2 -- that was released last fall. Shifting away from the instrumental focus of their first effort, the follow-up features Seattle-based singer Jesse Sykes (who provided vocals on the debut's version of the blues standard "Morning Dew") on all six tracks, covering songs recording in the late '60s by the Electric Flag, Fred Neil and Dillard and Clark along with the majestic original tune "Tall Grass" penned by Alvin and Sykes. The new album took more of a languid, cosmic country bent, but the extended takes -- most ranging 8-10 minutes in length -- still gave the players ample room for sonic exploration.
The band made its live debut at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2023 with guest guitarist Mark Karan (Bob Weir's Ratdog, the Other Ones, the Gilmour Project) and with second album keyboardist Willie Aaron (Leonard Cohen, Van Dyke Parks) joining the Third Mind onstage for a spectacular performance. The group has since toured to wide acclaim on both coasts and released a live document of its powerful stage show with the album Live Mind that is set to be released in February of next year. The band returns to Northern California this week for a string of four dates presented by concert promoter (((folkYEAH!))). The first show will be held Wednesday at the Auburn Oddfellows Hall, followed by concerts at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz Thursday, and the Sebastiani Theatre in Sonoma before ending up at the Chapel in San Francisco Saturday night. Solo country-folk artist Mike Beck opens the shows in Santa Cruz and Sonoma, with ambient guitar sound sculptor Tony Jay opening the show at the Chapel, where Mad Alchemy will provide live visuals.
The Third Mind
Wednesday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m. $29-$45
The Oddfellows Hall in Auburn
Thursday, Dec. 19, 7 p.m. $35-$38
Moe's Alley
Friday, Dec. 20, 7 p.m. $42
The Sebastiani Theatre
Saturday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m. $32-$35
The Chapel
