The Southern California-based Blasters, led by brothers Dave and Phil Alvin, produced some first-rate roots-rock albums in their heyday. Two of these punk-influenced LPs have received reissues, on Feb. 6, 2026, and both do a good job of showing off Dave’s songwriting prowess and Phil’s expressive, enthusiastically delivered vocals.
One is the group’s eponymous sophomore album, which first appeared in 1981. Its program includes five well-executed covers, alongside seven of Dave’s creations. Guests include Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin on baritone sax and New Orleans’s Lee Allen (best known for his 1958 instrumental hit “Walkin’ with Mr. Lee”) on tenor sax. Allen is featured prominently on “So Long Baby Goodbye” and “Hollywood Bed,” both of which were reportedly written with his sax in mind.
Highlights among the tracks penned by Dave include the explosive “Marie Marie,” which produced a Top 20 UK hit in 1980 for rockabilly singer Shakin’ Stevens, and “Border Radio,” which conjures up 50,000-watt Mexican station XERB, home of the inimitable Wolfman Jack.
Related: Our Album Rewind of the Blasters’ debut
The cover choices say a lot about the band’s influences. They include Bo Diddley’s “I Love You So,” Rudy Toombs’s “I’m Shakin,’” which R&B singer Little Willie John memorably recorded, ”Stop the Clock” from rockabilly singer Bob Ehret, “Never No More Blues,” from country music giant Jimmie Rodgers, and “Highway 61,” which is associated with blues pianist and singer Sunnyland Slim.
The new edition is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.
Hard Line, the other newly reissued set, is the group’s fourth album and the last of its LPs with the original lineup. First released in 1985, shortly before Dave left the band, it was produced by Jeff Eyrich, who also worked on the Plimsouls’ Everywhere at Once. Guests include Tom Petty drummer Stan Lynch and Elvis Presley’s backup singers, the Jordanaires. The album features eight of Dave’s compositions, plus the traditional “Samson and Delilah” and a cover of “Colored Lights” by Blasters fan John Mellencamp, who executive-produced the track.
Several of Dave’s tunes on this disc have topical themes. “Dark Night” describes a lynching, possibly in response to an interracial romance, while, in “Common Man,” the lyrics take aim at then-President Ronald Reagan: “He wasn’t born in a cabin, he never fought in a war/But he learned to smile and quote Abe Lincoln and get his foot in the door.” Other standouts include two songs Dave wrote with John Doe, his former bandmate in the punk rock group X. They include the acoustic “Little Honey” and “Just Another Sunday,” whose protagonist is spending his third long week in motel hell after a romantic breakup.
The new edition of Hard Line is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.
1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationIf you have never listened to Hard Line start to finish, you owe it to yourself to listen to Americana at it’s best. Brilliant writing and flawless execution. Take it from someone who saw The Blasters in concert three times in 1985-86.