A gap of six years separates ASHGROVE from Dave Alvin's last batch of new songs, 1998's BLACK JACK DAVID (a live album and a selection of traditional songs came in between), and it sounds like he benefited from the break. As always, the consummate roots-rocker splits his time between country, blues, folk, and rock tunes, all delivered in his raw, honest baritone. As he did with his erstwhile band the Blasters, Alvin paints vivid, organic pictures of American life, giving small-scale moments and deceptively complicated personalities their moment in song. Closing in on age 50, Alvin begins to ruminate on his own life as well, looking back to his youth on the title track. But he's at his best when he's inhabiting other characters, like the withered, hospitalized old man in “The Man in the Bed” or the shady ne'er-do-well of “Out of Control.” With his mastery of traditional American musical forms and his strong narrative control, Alvin proves that there's still vitality in the well-traveled roads of Americana. As a teenager Dave Alvin frequented legendary L.A. blues clubs like the Ashgrove, where he soaked up the licks and the spirit of T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner. Alvin's first collection of new songs in six years repays these debts with the meanest electric blues he's ever played–and some of his most vivid, and most elegantly arranged, character studies. “Out of Control” nails the seediest of L.A. night-crawlers, the autobiographical “Nine Volt Heart” reveals the wonder of growing up with soul-era radio, and “Everett Ruess,” the story of a desert drifter who happily disappears forever, questions how much we'll ever understand the human heart. Song for song, Ashgrove is Alvin's best record since King of California . All the narrative poise, lyrical soul, and guitar muscle of an American music master is here.