Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a Texan who spent a few formative years in California. Dave Alvin is a Californian who has spent alot of time in Texas. So of course, when the Blaster and the Flatlander began performing together after nearly thirty years of friendship, they leaned into the overlap. The duo’s first album, 2018’s Downey to Lubbock, was named for their respective childhood homes. Now they’re back with Texicali, out June 21 from Yep Roc Records.
Texas and California may be rivals in the realms of business, politics, and tacos, but when it comes to music, the two states share kind of a psychic border. “We come from different places, but we come from the same place musically in a lot of ways,” says Alvin, who came up in the L.A. punk scene but is at heart a barroom blues guitarist. For his part, Gilmore is a West Texas country singer …