Dave Alvin (born November 11, 1955, in Downey, California), is an American … Read Full Bio ↴Dave Alvin (born November 11, 1955, in Downey, California), is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has been one of the leading proponents of 'roots' or 'American' music, bringing together elements of rock-and-roll, blues, rural and tejano music.

Alvin and his older brother Phil Alvin grew up loving Americana, country and blues. In 1979 they formed The Blasters with friends Bill Bateman and John Bazz.

Shortly after leaving the Blasters, Alvin joined X as lead guitarist after the departure of Billy Zoom. Alvin amicably left the group to work on a solo project shortly after the recording sessions for their album See How We Are. Alvin is also a member of country band The Knitters (composed mainly of members of X), appearing on 1987's Poor Little Critter on the Road and the 2005 follow-up, The Modern Sounds of The Knitters.

In the early 1980s Alvin, along with fellow Blasters members Bill Bateman and Steve Berlin, performed on several albums with the Los Angeles punk band The Flesh Eaters. These albums are considered precursors to what is now called "deathrock". Alvin also played with the band The Gun Club briefly, playing guitar on "Eternally Is Here" & "The Stranger in Our Town" from the 1984 album, The Las Vegas Story.

Alvin's first solo album, entitled Romeo's Escape (1987) in the United States and Every Night About This Time in England, added a purer country influence along with a larger side-portion of the blues; while the album was critically well received, it didn't fare well in the marketplace, and Alvin was dropped by his American record label, Columbia. Alvin suffered health problems which sidelined him for a while, except for a wild tour with friends Mojo Nixon and Country Dick Montana as the Pleasure Barons, which was described as "a Las Vegas revue from acts who aren't going to be asked to play Vegas." (A live album was released of a second Pleasure Barons tour in 1993.)

In 1989, Dwight Yoakam scored a hit on the country charts with Alvin's song "Long White Cadillac," and Alvin used the royalties to start work on his second solo set, Blue Blvd. Released by the California-based roots-music label Hightone Records in 1991, Blue Blvd received enthusiastic reviews and sold well enough to re-establish Alvin as a significant artist in the roots rock scene.

After releasing Museum of Heart in 1993, Alvin began to turn his attention to acoustic music with 1994's King of California, and over the next several years Alvin moved back and forth between hard-edged roots rock and more introspective acoustic material that still honored his influences (and allowed him to display a greater range as a vocalist).

In 2000, Alvin recorded a collection of traditional folk and blues classics, Public Domain: Songs From the Wild Land, which earned him a Grammy award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

In 2011, Alvin released the album Eleven Eleven on Yep Roc Records. The album was a return to Alvin's rock roots. According to Rolling Stone, "Though Alvin has often switched between electric and acoustic, almost everything here is plugged in – above all Alvin, an under-recognized guitar hero."
www.davealvin.net

Rio Grande
Dave Alvin Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I guess she put her blue dress on
And walked out late last night
Left one silk stocking
Dangling from the bedside light
I sobered up and called her name
Just before the dawn
I saw her footprints in the sand
And knew that she had gone

Down the Rio Grande.

I pulled out of Albuquerque
Prayin' I wasn't late
I got a couple cups of coffee
At some joint off the interstate
Passin' through Las Cruces
I swear I saw her car
She always said she'd go someday
But never said how far
Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville
She's got some family there
She was always talkin' ‘bout
The salty Gulf Coast air
Where the river ends
Down the Rio Grande.

I saw an old grey heron
Flyin' south against the wind
Storm clouds over Juarez
Rollin' east to the Big Bend
I drove down Highway Ninety
Through a dusty desert wind
I didn't know where it would lead me
Or if I'd find her again
Down the Rio Grande.

I lit my last cigarette
As the sky began to clear
Black mountains up ahead
A red sundown in my mirror
Lost all the border
‘Tween the future and the past
One fading slowly
And the other comin' fast
Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville
She's got some family there
She was always talkin' ‘bout
The salty gulf coast air
Where the river ends
Down the Rio Grande.

I bought a bottle in Del Rio
And I parked on the side of the road
I stayed up all night
Starin' at the lights of Mexico
And I walked down to border bridge
At the break of day
And I threw that empty bottle off
And I watched it float away
Down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville
She's got some family there
She was always talkin ‘bout
The salty gulf coast air
Where the river ends

Down the Rio Grande
Where the river ends.

Overall Meaning

Dave Alvin’s song "Rio Grande" is a tale of lost love and the journey to find it. The singer wakes up to find his love has left him, discovering only her blue dress and silk stocking as evidence of her departure. He leaves to try and find her, driving from Albuquerque to Brownsville, following the path of the Rio Grande river, hoping to find his lost love. Throughout the journey, the singer struggles between the past and the future, and the uncertainty of what lies ahead. He drives through dusty plains, passes through Las Cruces, sees a grey heron flying south, and watches storm clouds over Juarez rolling east to the Big Bend. In the end, he buys a bottle, walks down to the border bridge, and watches the river take the bottle away.

The song is a haunting exploration of the feelings of loss and desolation, with each setting full of emotional weight. The lyrics describe both the physical journey and the emotional turmoil that the singer is experiencing with each verse, with the Rio Grande river serving as the physical guide through the story. The song creates a mood of longing and melancholy that is brought to life in the descriptive verses, achieving a level of raw emotion that is rare in many songs.

Line by Line Meaning

I guess she put her blue dress on
The singer is guessing that the woman wore her blue dress while leaving.

And walked out late last night
The woman left late in the night.

Left one silk stocking / Dangling from the bedside light
The woman left in a hurry and forgot one of her stockings, which was hanging from the lamp next to the bed.

I sobered up and called her name / Just before the dawn
The artist sobered up from his drunken state and called out the woman's name before dawn.

I saw her footprints in the sand / And knew that she had gone / Down the Rio Grande.
The artist realizes that the woman has left and has gone down the Rio Grande, as he saw her footprints in the sand.

I pulled out of Albuquerque / Prayin' I wasn't late
The singer left Albuquerque hoping to catch up with the woman's trail.

I got a couple cups of coffee / At some joint off the interstate
The singer had some coffee at a roadside cafe while driving.

Passin' through Las Cruces / I swear I saw her car
While passing through Las Cruces, the artist thinks he saw the woman's car.

She always said she'd go someday / But never said how far / Down the Rio Grande.
The woman always talked about leaving someday but never said how far she would go, except that she has now gone down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville / She's got some family there / She was always talkin' ‘bout / The salty Gulf Coast air / Where the river ends / Down the Rio Grande.
The artist speculates that the woman may be in Brownsville where she has some family, as she often spoke about being there where the Rio Grande ends and meeting the salty Gulf Coast air.

I saw an old grey heron / Flyin' south against the wind
The singer observes an old grey heron flying south against the wind.

Storm clouds over Juarez / Rollin' east to the Big Bend
The artist sees storm clouds over Juarez (a city in Mexico) that are rolling east towards the Big Bend (a region in Texas).

I drove down Highway Ninety / Through a dusty desert wind / I didn't know where it would lead me / Or if I'd find her again / Down the Rio Grande.
The singer drives through a dusty desert wind down Highway Ninety, unsure of where it would lead him and uncertain if he would find the woman again down the Rio Grande.

I lit my last cigarette / As the sky began to clear / Black mountains up ahead / A red sundown in my mirror
The singer lights his last cigarette as the sky begins to clear, revealing black mountains ahead of him and a red sundown in his rearview mirror.

Lost all the border / ‘Tween the future and the past / One fading slowly / And the other comin' fast / Down the Rio Grande.
The singer feels that he has lost the border between his future and past, with one fading away slowly and the other coming fast down the Rio Grande.

I bought a bottle in Del Rio / And I parked on the side of the road / I stayed up all night / Starin' at the lights of Mexico / And I walked down to border bridge / At the break of day / And I threw that empty bottle off / And I watched it float away / Down the Rio Grande.
The artist buys a bottle, parks on the side of the road in Del Rio, stays up all night staring at the lights of Mexico, walks to the border bridge at the break of day, throws the empty bottle away, and watches it float away down the Rio Grande.

Maybe she's in Brownsville / She's got some family there / She was always talkin ‘bout / The salty Gulf Coast air / Where the river ends / Down the Rio Grande
Again, the artist thinks that the woman might be in Brownsville, where she has family, as she often talked about the salty Gulf Coast air where the river ends down the Rio Grande.

Where the river ends.
The song ends with the repetition of the woman's direction of where she went, where the Rio Grande ends.

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: D. ALVIN, T. RUSSELL

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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