Dave Alvin: A tribute to Chris Gaffney

Danny Ott, Rod Hodges, Dave Alvin and Rick Shea perform at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in a tribute show for songwriter Chris Gaffney. (Photo by Alistair Hunter)

On January 10th and 11th, Downey’s Grammy Award-winning Dave Alvin paid tribute to his best friend, the late Chris Gaffney, with two sold out performances at the legendary McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica.

During the late 70’s and early 80’s, there was a revival of American roots music. Dave Alvin and his brother, Phil, joined together with their other Downey brothers, John Bazz and Bill Bateman, and exploded on the scene. (John Bazz recently performed in a couple of Downey Arts Coalition blues shows at the Epic Live). They were influenced by their surroundings east of the 710, their eclectic record collection, and the legendary folk and blues artists they saw performing live at Los Angeles’s legendary The AshGrove.

The Blasters’s songs “American Music,” “Border Radio,” “Marie, Marie” and others were heard by audiences alongside groups like Los Lobos, X, and The Knitters. One of the best of those bands was a band called Chris Gaffney and the Cold Hard Facts.

ALVIN BRANCHES OUT

Alvin was the principal songwriter for The Blasters, primarily writing songs for Phil’s phenomenal voice. In an effort to expand his songwriting, Alvin left The Blasters in 1986 to join The Knitters, and then eventually X. He went on to a solo career that has allowed him to explore folk, blues, country, rock, psychedelia, and whatever he was interested in.

Alvin has eight albums with The Blasters and another dozen or so solo or in collaboration with others. His two most recent albums and tours are “Downey to Lubbock” (2018) and “Texicali” (2024) both in collaboration with Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

WHY A TRIBUTE TO GAFFNEY

“All of us spent thousands of hours traveling the world’s highways with Mr. Gaffney – from Tucson to Milan, from seedy joints to swanky dumps, singing and playing music, swearing, messing up, screwing around and seriously creating while seemingly laughing constantly,” said Dave Alvin. “To say that we still love and miss our wild, departed comrade would be a gross understatement. So, we’re putting on a musical seance to summon Chris’s spirit back to the stage at McCabe’s where he and I performed together for the last time shortly before his death in 2008.”

MCCABE’S GUITAR SHOP

I am reminded that this is very intimate venue. Nothing fancy. One hundred twenty-five folding chairs. No food or drinks. Just beautiful guitars lining the walls. With wildfires raging, and parts of Santa Monica evacuated, McCabe’s concert manager points out the exit and says, “Grab a guitar on your way out.” He tells us any other show would have been canceled.

The audience is friendly. I spot Allen Charmin’ Larman, the co-host of KPFK’s famous “Folk Scene” radio show, and say hello. He’s a long time Dave Alvin fan. Everyone is aware they are going to share in a special communal experience.

ALVIN AND GAFFNEY

It was a Tuesday night in 1986, at a bar in Hollywood. The band playing was Gaffney’s band doing a Ray Price country shuffle. Alvin thought you don’t hear that every night.

Then Gaffney dedicated a song to Hawaiian Gardens, and Alvin thought, “What kind of guy dedicates a song to Hawaiian Gardens?” So he started heckling the band—in a good-natured way—telling them to play something for Bellflower. They got into this Heckle and Jeckle routine, and when they were done playing, a friendship was born right there.

Alvin eventually brought Gaffney on as his merchandise guy on his tours. Gaffney would join in with his accordion on the finale.

One night, during an Alvin encore in Philadelphia, Gaffney got on stage and belted out “Cowboys to Girls,” a song written by Philadelphia music legends Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff and popularized in the mid-1960s by the Philadelphia soul group the Intruders.

“The next day, the review of the show says that perhaps the highlight of the show was when the merch guy got up and sang a song. Gaffney never let me forget that,” says Alvin.

CHRIS GAFFNEY

Gaffney was a member of Alvin’s Guilty Men and also a highly respected and influential, if neglected, singer-songwriter. His music is hard to pigeon hole. Music genres are an invention of music industry marketing departments. His music is a mix of country, R&B, Tex Mex, norteño, and all-around roots music as a reflection of the working-class California environment where he grew up. The blue-collar champion Alvin would call it “American Folk Music.” Emmylou Harris called it “music washed in blood.”

Gaffney was born in Austria, lived in Arizona, and grew up for a time east of the 710, in Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia. Gaffney passed away 15 years ago from liver cancer at the age of 57. Alvin has been presenting Gaffney tribute shows featuring Gaffney’s songs, songs Alvin and Gaffney wrote, and songs Gaffney loved ever since.

“For whatever reasons, Chris never got the breaks, recognition, money and widespread respect he justly deserved,” Alvin has written. Despite years of hard work and rejection from record labels and radio, “Chris never stopped singing and writing wonderful songs.”

THE COLD HARD FACTS

I stumbled upon Gaffney’s albums some time ago simply because they looked interesting. These are musician’s musicians, including special guest Rod Hodges of The Iguanas on accordion, who was inspired to create a band by Gaffney’s songs.

Members of Gaffney’s band, The Cold Hard Facts, include Rick Shea as the soulful front man, Danny Ott conjuring up magical guitar and vocals, and Wyman Reese holding down the keyboards. (Danny Ott recently performed with the Americana band Coyote Moon in collaboration with the Downey Arts Coalition at the Downey Symphony Orchestra’s Garden Party fundraiser.) They were joined by the current rock solid rhythm section for Mavis Stapes, Gregory Boaz on bass, and Steve Mugalian on drums.

Right away we recognize why these gentlemen have played with everyone. Together they give us the first 40 minutes of a heartfelt set of music.

Dave Alvin joins the band in the second set, displaying fabulous guitar work along with Danny Ott and Rick Shea. Alvin takes most of the lead vocals and all of the storytelling. He’s a great storyteller. One after the other, the stories lead into a special song. You can tell the musicians hold these songs dear to their hearts. And you can see them smile. It’s also a celebration.

Danny Ott has said he still he marvels at just how good some of Gaff’s songs were, that even after playing them hundreds of times he now sees and hears them in a new light.

THE SET LIST

The audience and I know these songs. The musicians conjure up the spirit of Chris Gaffney in a musical seance. It’s a form of healing. And creating community especially as wildfires rage nearby. The songs, not in order are: “Glasshouse,” “Quiet Desperation,” “Albuquerque,” “Six Days A Week,” “King of the Blues,” “East of Houston, West of Baton Rouge,” “Man of Somebody’s Dreams,” “Sugar Bee,” “’68,” “Run Conejo Run,” “Midnight Dream,” “Fight (Night),” “Cowboys To Girls,” and more.

Alvin gives us a special “Frank’s Tavern,” not In Gaffney’s original high voltage Tex Mex form, but as Calexico’s slow, romantic ballad.

THE ENCORE

Alvin and the Cold Hard Facts return for an encore with what Alvin says could be right out of a Bob Hope and Bing Crosby Road Movie. He’s right. We’re in for a treat. “Two Lucky Bums” is a joyful song of two lucky bums chasing their same old dream.

TWO SPECIAL SONGS FOR ME

Two Gaffney songs set east of the 710 have always resonated with me. The first is “The Gardens” which is set in Hawaiian Gardens where he grew up for a while. Hawaiian Gardens is one square mile. In his introduction, Alvin says, “Hawaiian Gardens is neither.”

As a school administrator for Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Alternative Education, I operated the Hawaiian Gardens Community School for students expelled, on probation, or just didn’t fit in to their traditional schools. A remarkable touching song and performance.

“The Gardens” (excerpt)

When the sun goes down
And the heat stays on
Young men fight
And they carry on
It’s just the way of life
Down here in the Garden

This side’s mine
That side’s yours
You can’t walk here
And break the rule
The rule that we all know
Down here in the Garden

I guess it’s one more night
That we’ll have to spend
With the window barred
And the kids locked in
One more night
Will make your life slowly harden

I guess it’s one more night
That we’ll have to spend
Where mamas cry
Daddys sin
One more night we’ll spend
Down here in the Garden

The other is Gaffney’s “Artesia.” Backed by the rhythm section of the band, Alvin’s introduction is pure poetry. It goes something like this:

“When Chris Gaffney and I were kids, our part of California was changing fast. The old orange groves, avocado groves, and dairy farms were being torn down. They were being paved over with new tract homes, shopping malls, warehouses, factories, and freeways. But still on some mornings you could smell the sweet perfume of orange blossoms in the air. On hot summer afternoons, the Santa Ana winds would scorch the little cow towns of Cerritos, Bellflower and Artesia. That hot afternoon blast furnace would blow through Dairy Valley and you could smell the cows. One night Gaffney called me up and said, ‘Alvin, you remember those old cow smells? I just wrote a song about it.”

It’s a beautiful song that calls back the nostalgic scent of passing through Dairy Valley with teenage memories of cruising Carson, Alondra, Artesia, and passing the State Mental Hospital in Norwalk. The lament is, “Because now when the wind blows out of Artesia, you can’t smell 1965.” Not many songwriters can write such a sweet song about cow manure.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT

Music heals. Alvin said this was not only a tribute to Gaffney but to anyone close to us that any of us have lost. A heartwarming experience especially at this time. “Musicians are weird. This is what we do. This is how we heal and how we celebrate. As long as McCabes hasn’t burned down we were going to do this show.”

It was night of celebration, mourning and healing. And pure magic.

THE TRIBUTE ALBUM

Alvin has also produced a superb Chris Gaffney tribute album called “The Man of Somebody’s Dreams” (2009) featuring Alvin, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Texas Tornados, John Doe, Alejandro Escovedo, The Iguanas, Dave Gonzales, Tom Russell, Dan Penn, Boz Scaggs, Big Sandy, Los Straightjackets, and more. This is the closest thing to a live tribute to Chris Gaffney. I recommend it highly.