Check out this taped live performance of 2015 Grammy nominated Dave and Phil Alvin at LA's legendary Troubadour. #YahooLive. It took a near-death experience to reunite Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin, the California brothers at the heart of "roots heroes" (Rolling Stone) The Blasters. "Phil died and was brought back to life over in Spain," Dave says of his brother's 2012 health scare. "That was a real wakeup call to me. We hadn't made a full album together since 1985, but as you get older, you realize you're not immortal and you've only got so much time." It only made sense, then, that for their first record together in three decades, the Alvin brothers would go back to where it all started and pay tribute to one of their original shared musical heroes: Big Bill Broonzy. The brothers went their separate ways in 1986, when Dave left the band to ‬ â€pursue a solo career. After decades apart musically, they reunited briefly to ‬ â€record songs for the 2013 soundtrack to "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland ‬ â€County. That encyclopedic knowledge of American music, that expansive musical vocabulary and the fluency with which the Alvins slip in out and of genres and eras is what enables 'Common Ground' to triumph. Dave Alvin and Phil Alvin may have set out to honor the legacy of Big Bill Broonzy with this record, but in the process, they solidified their own as one of roots music's most exceptional duos.
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