***1/2 Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men

INTERSTATE CITY

(Hightone/Rhino)

Filled with wanderers along the interstate seeking deliverance from their dead-end-lives, Alvin's first live solo CD rocks more than 1994's dark acoustic King of California. Still, it's so pared down that his steady-beat vocals are never crowded. He and Greg Leisz sagely space out their guitar notes while Rick Solem's mercurial piano glides from the barrelhouse to cocktail jazz. Continuing his odes to his musical heroes, Alvin turns to New Orleans party music for the CD's one fun track, a boot-scooting elegy to R&B's Lee Andrews.

The roots-rich disc peaks with an understated cover of the late Jim Ringer's "Waiting for the Hard Times To Go"; that's followed by a fervent medley of the Blasters' "Jubilee Train," Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi," and Chuck Berry's "Promised Land." Laced with Ted Roddy's urgent harp, the medley brings to the road song "Promised Land" new spiritual dimensions as Alvin's bruised and battered characters cling to remnants of the American Dream.

-- Bruce Sylvester

(Dave Alvin plays the House of Blues this Wednesday, October 9.)