It’s not as groundbreaking as his work with The Blasters or The Knitters , but this might be the best Dave Alvin record to date. It’s certainly the most complex. Alvin helped define the punkabilly/L.A. country punk sound with those early 80’s projects, and then went on to hone his songwriting and musician skills with a long list of solo and collaborative work with The Guilty Men and others. On top of that, his skill as a producer is well known. But I always hear the other musicians doing a great job of supplementing Dave. The Guilty Women don’t just supplement his sound, they complement it. The result is an album that’s greater than the sum of the parts.
  Take the opening cut, Marie Marie , for example. This version is nowhere near as rockin’ a version as what The Blasters did. But with the stylish violin and fiddle of Laurie Lewis and Amy Farris, and accordion from an un-named artist (the reviewers copy didn’t come with liner notes), this version becomes a Cajun standard.
On California’s Burning , the slide guitar work from Cindy Cashdollar and drumming of Lisa Pankratz contribute to a relentlessness that conveys the no-escape feeling you get from all the smoke and emotion that goes with a big fire. “Coyotes howling, the devil winds begin to blow” indeed.
Boss of the Blues brings a boogie-woogie, jump-jive atmosphere to a song about one of Dave’s boyhood influences when “Big Joe Turner was the boss of the blues.” Weight of the World benefits tremendously from Christy McWilson’s plaintive wailing in the style of a Loretta Lynn. And several of the songs use background harmonies to create layers of sound that Exene Cervenka never reached with her punk sensibilities when she recorded with Alvin.
Finally, the album ends with a cover of the Doris Day classic, Que Sera, Sera . I can’t imagine what inspired them to do this tune. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t have the airy, pop sound of the original. But its replacement of that sound with a jumping honky-tonk swing beat is a great example of the creativity Alvin has brought to the American music scene.
The full Guilty Women lineup consists of Cindy Cashdollar on slide and steel guitar; Nina Gerber on electric guitars; Laurie Lewis on violin, mandolin, and vocals; Christy McWilson on lead and background vocals; Sarah Brown on bass; Amy Farris on violin, viola and vocals; and Lisa Pankratz on drums and percussion. Given that group of musicians, I might even be able to make a good record. But Alvin has coaxed the best out of each of them and this is one of the best albums released so far this year.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.