Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women / (YepRoc)

Dave Alvin lost a dear friend and band member last year. Knowing it would be impossible to replace Chris Gaffney in the Guilty Men, Dave came up with the perfect solution. He recruited some of the finest female Americana artists, regrouped, gave the new band a name that would make his old buddy Gaffney smile and recorded "Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women” (Yep Roc). The disc kicks off with a fiddle and accordion driven Cajun cover of the Blasters’ classic “Marie Marie” and closes with, believe it or not, a rockin’ recording of honorary Guilty Woman Doris Day’s “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be)”. In between are a handful of new Alvin songs including a co-write with Amy Farris, three Guilty Women tunes including Christy McWilson’s beautiful “Potter’s Field” and covers of "These Times We're Living In" (Kate Wolf) and Tim Hardin’s "Don't Make Promises". The poignant “Nani and Jimi” opens with a Hendrix inspired riff as Dave sings of “going to see Jimi and nothing’s going to be the same”. We’re all lucky Dave’s mom drove twelve year old Dave to see Jimi in her old Chevy and that he didn’t follow her advice to “be careful honey of those crazy people inside”. Great idea and disc Dave! Why didn't somebody think of this before?

“The Guilty Woman” are Cindy Cashdollar, Nina Gerber, Laurie Lewis, Sarah Brown, Amy Farris, Christy McWilson and Lisa Pankrantz. Marcia Ball and Susie Thompson make special guest appearances.

You can check out this video from the band's debut at Strictly Hardly Bluegrass in 2008 and you can stream “Dave Alvin and the Guilty Woman” in its entirety at Reverb Nation.

Catch ‘em live if they're hitting your town! I’m hoping they’ll add a NC date to the tour.

Tour dates are:
Thursday June 18 - Santa Cruz, CA
Saturday June 20 - San Jan Capist., CA
Tuesday 23 - Chico, CA
Thursday June 25 - Redding , CA
Friday, June 26 - San Francisco, CA
Saturday June 27 - Laytonville, CA
Friday July 3 - Springfield , IL
Saturday July 4 - Berwyn , IL
Sunday July 5 - Benton Harbor, MI
Tuesday July 7 - Ann Arbor, MI
Wednesday July 8 - Cleveland, OH
Thursday July - Pittsburgh, PA
Friday July 10 - Philadelphia, PA
Saturday July11 - New York City, NY
Sunday July 12 - Amagansett, NY
Wednesday July 15 - Cambridge , MA
Thursday July 16 - Fall River, MA
Saturday July 18 - Greenfield , MA
Sunday July 19 - Ottawa, ON
Friday July 24 - Annapolis , MD
Saturday July 25 - Alexandria, VA
Wednesday Aug. 5 - Solana Beach, CA
Thursday Aug. 6 - Santa Monica, CA
Friday Aug. 7 - Bakersfield, CA
Saturday Aug. 8 - Sparks, NV
Wednesday Sept. 2 - Winters, CA
Thursday Sept. 3 - Sonora, CA
Saturday Sept. 5 - Portland , OR
Sunday Sept. 6 - Seattle
Saturday, Oct. 3 - San Francisco, CA