The Blasters featured in Country Music Hall of Fame's 'Western Edge' exhibit

Dave Alvin's beat-up Fender Mustang will be part of the Country Music Hall of Fame's Western Edge exhibit opening Sept. 30th. 

Writes Dave Alvin....

In the fall of 1988, after being dropped by CBS Records, I attempted to be a professional Nashville songwriter. I failed miserably.

During that odd, rough time of my life, I lived in a second floor apartment (in the dark back building barely visible behind the two well lit front ones) on 17th Ave South. My roommate was a fine jazz guitarist named Chris Page. Neither Chris nor I had any money to properly furnish the place but we did find two metal folding chairs and a metal folding card table that cost us about 20 bucks total at a local store. I slept on the living room floor on a one person air mattress. I really had nothing going on with my career but, on the bright side, I did have an acoustic guitar, a cassette player/AM-FM radio boombox, some clothes in a suitcase, an ashtray, some pens and stacks of notebooks full of questionable lyrics for half-written songs. 

I also had some intense hangovers, met some wonderful folks, met a few jerks, wrote with some excellent (if struggling same as I was) songwriters, had a few memorable experiences with a couple successful tunesmiths and, seeing how I had no car or credit cards back then, I spent a lot of time exploring the lovely streets of Nashville on foot when I wasn't scribbling verses in "the writer's room" at the Bug Music offices on 16th Ave. When no big Nashville stars cut any of the songs I'd been co-writing and the weather got too damn cold in December, I tucked my tail between my legs and limped back to California.

I'm telling you this old tale because September 30th, 2022 will be the opening night at Nashville's highly respected Country Music Hall of Fame for it's newest landmark exhibit, "Western Edge: The Roots And Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock" and I am proud beyond words to be included in it. This comprehensive exhibit covers the early 60s to the early 90s, from The Dillards, Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Burrito Brothers to Emmy Lou Harris and Linda Ronstadt through to The Blasters and Knitters then on to Lone Justice, Los Lobos, Rosie Flores and finally Dwight Yoakam. 

I'm sincerely honored that my beat up old Blaster era Fender Mustang guitar will be on display in the exhibit, along with my also beat up old Blaster era leather jacket, my now fragile, lucky red bandanna that I wore on every Blasters album cover and my ragged but right, folk art guitar case that traveled the world with me during those wild years. There is also a big opening night concert at the museum that I'll be performing at which also features many legendary musicians from the exhibit like Chris Hillman (The Byrds/Burrito Brothers), Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield/Poco),  Maria McKee, Rosie Flores, The Watkins Twins and many more. 

Yeah, I'm nervous and a touch scared to be part of this shindig. I know I'm really just a rock and rolling folk/blues guitar basher and not a "country" artist but the influence of country music on my songwriting is undeniable. I'm proud and thrilled The Blasters will be recognized by the Country Music Hall of Fame for the hard work we did and the influence we had. Of course, the down and out guy that was me in 1988, sleeping on the floor in a small Nashville apartment with little money and no prospects, would not believe for one damn second that any of this could possibly be happening. I'm positive, though, that he feels as deeply honored as I do.    – Dave Alvin

For more info, visit the Country Music Hall Of Fame site right here.