June 2, 2014

Music Review: Dave and Phil Alvin’s “Key to the Highway”


TRACK 6

“Key to the Highway”

From Dave and Phil Alvin’s Common Ground: Dave Alvin + Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy

YEP ROC

Liner notes: On their first joint studio album since the ’80s, the once-estranged Blasters siblings uncork a spiffy country-blues rendition of Bill Broonzy’s best-known song, also covered by Derek and the Dominos.

Behind the music: Born Lee Conley Bradley, Broonzy (who died in 1958) has been cited as an influence by the Kinks’ Ray Davies. Muddy Waters cut an entire album of his tunes.

Check it out if you like: Modern blues crusaders Gary Clark Jr., Alvin Youngblood Hart, and North Mississippi Allstars.

This review originally appeared in the May/June 2014 issue of Mother Jones.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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