The Guilty

Grammy winner, Dave Alvin, has been roaming the highways of American music for over a quarter century. During those decades he's busted speakers with roots rock kick-starters, The Blasters, as well as mined the depths of country, folk and blues with his solo projects. A mainstay during much of this journey has been Alvin's electrifying band The Guilty Men. Following the recent death of Dave's best friend and Guilty Men accordionist Chris Gaffney in early 2008, Alvin decided to move in an exciting new musical direction. In October 2008 he stepped onto the stage of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco with an all-star, all-female group. Since dubbed The Guilty Women, the group consists of Americana scene vets Cindy Cashdollar, Nina Gerber, Laurie Lewis, Sarah Brown, Amy Farris, Christy McWilson and Lisa Pankrantz. Special guests include Marcia Ball and Susie Thompson. The self-titled debut from this unique assemblage of players, led by Alvin, is a spirited collection of thoughtful yet dynamic tunes featuring world-class musicianship worthy of his now legendary pedigree.

Roger Glover is best known as the bass player of the Hard Rock flagship Deep Purple, which he has been part of all incarnations of the band since the reunion in 1984. He joined the Lord, Paice and Blackmore, together with Ian Gillan in 1969 to form the famous MK II, Deep Purple line-up which is considered the legendary, classic line-up of the band. In the ‘70s he co-wrote and played on albums like “In Rock“, “Machine Head“ and “Fireball“, not to mention “Made in Japan“. His solo works have always been on a very high musical level, showing how much influence his bass lines and musical view are essential parts of the famous Purple sound.

As a longtime member of one of the groups that helped create heavy metal (Deep Purple, for the uninitiated), it's understandable to expect a solo outing by bassist Roger Glover to be geared toward headbangers. But as evidenced by his fifth solo album overall, 2011's If Life Was Easy, Glover has opted to follow a bluesier, roots rocky path. Which is understandable, because the whole point of doing a solo album should be to step out from under Purple's high-decibel shadow. As a case in point, a pair of tunes feature Glover's daughter Gillian Glover on vocals: "Set Your Imagination Free" and "Get Away (Can't Let You)," with the former falling in "ballad" category while the latter is a blues-rocker with blaring horn work.