ALVIN: ROOTS ROUTE

Just when you thought the legions of Americans who’d pledged allegiance to the “roots-rock” sound had gone down in a storm of public indifference, along comes ex-Blasters, ex-X axeman Dave Alvin with a two-fisted combination of strong songs and swangin’ new band to remind us what all the fuss was about in the first place.

Saturday at the Music Machine, Alvin’s vocals ranged from serviceable to amateurish, but the band’s radical rearrangements of old Blasters tunes (“Border Radio” as a barroom ballad, a rock-it-to-stardom rendition of “Long Black Cadillac”) and Alvin’s most recent compositions, including the country weeper “Every Night About This Time” and the heartfelt, heartland rocker “Fourth of July,” more than made up for the lack of a commanding lead vocalist.

Using pedal steel, organ, harmonica and 12-string guitar to give each song its own specific character, Dave Alvin & the Allnighters sounded ready, willing and able to put their dancin’-with-your-best-gal-on-a-Saturday-night, roadhouse blues-country-rock on vinyl like right now.