One of the highlights of Dave Alvin’s last solo album, 2011’s Eleven Eleven, was a track called “What’s Up With Your Brother?”, a droll blues about Dave’s famously fractious relationship with his brother, Phil, that ended hilariously with them having the kind of argument that put paid to The Blasters, the band they were in together before fraternal tensions drove them into a ditch. They split in 1985, after just five albums. While Dave became dedicated to life as a hard travelling road dog, Phil completed a master’s degree in mathematics and artificial intelligence.
Taking a stand against the “heavy atmosphere” of the last 18 months, Terry Hall, Horace Panter and Lynval Golding have recorded a set of protest songs by artists as diverse as Frank Zappa, Big Bill Broonzy and Chip Taylor
