MAY 2025 TAKE 338 1 LONNIE LISTON SMITH (P44) 2 JEFF BRIDGES (P46) 3 HENRY BADOWSKI (P47) 4 JULEE CRUISE (P48) REISSUES | COMPS | BOXSETS | LOST RECORDINGS
THE BLASTERS
An American Music Story: The Complete Studio Recordings 1979–1985 LIBERATION HALL
Six years of holy rock’n’roll racket.
By Allan Jones
The Blasters in 1982: gleefully traversing the “depths and dimensions” of American music
GARY LEONARD
“It’s a howl from the desert, a scream from the slums”
TOWARDS the end of March 1982, Dave Alvin, sitting in fading Texas sunlight on the top steps of a fire escape running down the side of a club called The Fitzgerald in a north-western suburb of Houston, was talking about “American Music” – “It’s a howl from the desert, a scream from the slums/The Mississippi rollin’ to the beat of the drums” – a key song in The Blasters’ early repertoire; a battle cry, a call to arms. It was originally the title track of the debut album The Blasters cut in 1980 for Los Angeles rockabilly label Rollin’ Rock: 13 tracks, recorded over two days in someone’s garage. They re-recorded it for their eponymous second album, for LA independent label Slash, a record that back then in 1982 was in the US Top 40, a palpable hit.