- Photo by Dee Ann
The Blasters were formed in 1979 by brothers Phil and Dave Alvin, with bass player John Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman. Dave was their primary songwriter and Marie Marie was one of their greatest hits. Dave went solo in 1986, and was replaced by Hollywood Fats and now by Keith Wyatt.
At VLV they were playing on the outdoor stage for a huge crowd. Rock and Roll is their thing and they showed it. They played Dark Night, also one of their hits, featured in the movie From Dusk till Dawn.
Nick Curran supposed to be playing at VLV too, this year, but he is getting medical treatment for cancer again, so he had to cancel. Dave mentioned Nick several times and said that Nick promised to be back next year. It was very heart warming to see how artists care for eachother. Later on, Kim Lenz and Vicky Tafoya mentioned Nick, showed they care and wished him well. Nick will have an operation this week an there will be a benefit concert later this year.
At the Deke Dickerson Guitar Geek show, which I will tell you about in a few days, Nick and Keith were watching the show in front of me. So after the show I got up and talked to them. They were very sweet. Phil started talking about how he enjoyed the show very much. He and Deke go way back in 1978. The Blasters were soundchecking and Deke came up to them. Deke was 15 years old. They were crazy about ’78 vinyls, so Deke invited Phil over to his dads house to listen to music and play some guitar. Phil was very impressed and kept his phone number in case he ever needed a guitar player for The Blasters. But it never happened. They played together on other occasions, like Link Wray show.
Guitar player Keith joined The Blasters in the nineties. He enjoys it very much to play in such a close band. Every now and then they play with the original line up, with 
Dave Alvin, and Keith plays too.
Phil enjoyed this Deke Dickerson show, especially Crazy Joe and the Horton Brothers. But all about that later. Stay tuned!
