Blasters guitarist and founding member Dave Alvin [ tickets ] will set out on the road this summer in support of his upcoming solo release "West of the West," which is due in stores May 30.

The album--of which Alvin contributes only a single original writing credit--is devoted to material by California songwriters who helped shape Alvin's own work, including Jerry Garcia, Merle Haggard, Jackson Browne and Brian Wilson.

Appropriately, Alvin's tour will kick off with three California dates, starting with a May 28 appearance at the Santa Cruz Blues Festival in Aptos, CA. After a month's layoff, the outing will begin in earnest June 23 in Grover Beach, CA. The hard-working singer and his backing band, The Guilty Men, have lined up gigs well into September.

"West of the West," which follows 2004's "Ashgrove," is Alvin's second collection of cover songs. His first, 2000's "Public Domain," won him a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

"We started with a list of 25 songs, from Steve Gillette to Captain Beefheart and everything in between," Alvinsaid of his new album in a press release. "I was even thinking of doing 'Going Back to Cali' as a blues thing. In the end, though, it wasn't about choosing my favorite songs so much as choosing songs that I could sing well enough and arrange differently enough to make them interesting.

"When I did the traditional songs on the 'Public Domain' album, I asked myself, 'How do I take these songs and make them sound like I wrote them?' Now I'm asking, 'What can I bring to 'California Bloodlines' and 'Redneck Friend' to justify doing them again?'"