Fun on Saturday Night

If you were too young to have lived through the 1950s, or if you survived the birth of rock ’n’ roll and all the years since but are afflicted with nostalgia for those long ago days when words like “rockabilly” and “hep cat” were common conversational currency, The Blasters are ready, ready, Teddy, to take you back to those days that weren’t always as innocent as we now like to say they were. Phil Alvin leads the current manifestation of The Blasters through 12 songs that channel The Jordanaires, and Magic Sam, and the King himself. Exene Cervenka lends her voice to “Jackson,” and the miraculous Kid Ramos on the 12-string bajo sexto brings south of the border atmospherics to brother (and original Blaster) Dave Alvin’s song, “Maria Maria.” As they’ve always done, The Blasters raid the past with reverence for the music, but with a sense of humor, too. There’s some doo-woppy echoes, and some blues-tinged anthems that sound like they could be blasting from the radio of a ’58 Chevy, broadcast from the mighty KDIA on a hot summer night when the moon was full, and Wolfman Jack was haunting the airways. Hail, hail, rock ’n’ roll.