Presenting Steamboat Road!
Steamboat Road is the main road in Irvington, Virginia which was the childhood home of my grandmother, Alma, and her father, Alvah Haydon, my great-grandfather and namesake.
It Isn't Strange is another of our old songs based on a poem Lynn wrote about me before we were married. The Lyrics can be found in Valerie's Poems.
I wrote 12 Bar Blues mainly to play harmonica which I started doing when I was eight.
The Inferno is one of the songs I'm most proud of, though I'm proud of them all.
Steamboat Road * 12 Bar Blues * It Isn't Strange * No Destiny * Whodat * Ouachita * Hey There * The Inferno
John Alvah the Album!
You might say that this one has been fifty years in the making. My wife, Lynn, and I wrote Jamie, Left Foot First, and Make My way in the seventies. The lyrics for the first two can be found in Valerie's Poems.
I wrote Ludicrous Blues in the early eighties. I revived and redid them to make them more modern, though they still contain their original spirit. Working with them brought back many memories for us. The rest are brand-new songs.
Night Shades * Can't Go Home * Jamie * Ludicrous Blues * Been So Long * Life & Time *Left Foot First * Make My Way * Away * Miss Virtue * When She Comes
Available on most music streaming platforms
The John Alvah album represents more than two years of work. I use the term "work" very loosely. In this regard it refers to me going out to my studio and playing music every day, something that I've loved to do all my life.
People ask me what style my music is and all I can say is that it's my style. I've been playing guitar for fifty six years (so far), and I've been influenced by folk, rock, jazz, country and many other types of music. I never know where a song idea will come from. I can be watching t.v., or they can come from something I see or experience. Sometimes they come to me in my sleep, and once I've started working on a song I never know exactly where it will lead me. The adventure is the fun part!
I've always wanted to produce an album playing all the parts. So the band is Me, Myself and I. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed performing and producing it.
John Alvah
By the way, both album covers are paintings by my uncle Carroll Beale Barnes Jr. He painted the peregrine falcon for me in 1980 as a backdrop when I was playing solo gigs. The psychedelic gas station he painted in 1982. It was in Warsaw, Virginia and was actually painted that way. There was no way he could resist capturing it on canvas.