Dave Alvin and Friends meet Fallon

Americana and roots rock music fans are in for a real treat tomorrow night when Dave Alvin and Friends perform in the Barkley Theatre at the Art Center.

Alvin is a major voice on the Americana music scene and over the course of his 24-year career, and 11 solo albums, he’s written and performed some of the touchstone songs of the genre.

He’s become a sort of global ambassador for the mash-up of folk, blues and country musics that have become known as American roots rock.

From the founding of the hugely influential band, the Blasters, with his brother Phil, through his early college literary studies with poet, Gerry Locklin and a stint as lead guitarist for the band X, Alvin has put his mark on a distinctly poetic strain of Americana. His song, “4th of July,” has become a kind of anthem

His finely detailed song of the lives of people on the fringes of the American Dream take note of literary influences as diverse as Charles Bukowksi and John Steinbeck and he’s a monster guitar player. For more info on Alvin, you can check out www.davelavin.net

Doors will open at 7 p.m., ho-host art bar and the show will being at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 for CAC members, $20 for non-members and can be picked up at Jeff’s Copy Express, Postage Plus, ITT @ NAS Fallon or call the Churchill Arts Council at 775-423-1440.

It will also be a good chance to check out the exhibitions on view at the Center: “Nevada Mines: Small Spaces,” photographs by Lee Saloutos and “Marred Landscapes,” paintings of desert landscapes by Nina Elder.

Stremmel Gallery in Reno, 1400 S. Virginia St., will be opening a new show, “Painting the West” on Thursday. The show features works by five Nevada artists: Ron Arthaud, Jean LeGassick, Craig Mitchell, Charles Muench and Jeff Nicholson. Three of the artists (Arthaud, LeGassick and Nicholson) were also included in the show, “Painted Desert,” mounted by the Churchill Arts Council a couple years back.

All of the works in the show deal with familiar, and some not so, aspects of then Nevada/Great Basin landscape. There will be a reception for the artists at the gallery on Thursday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and it’s free and open to the public.

The exhibition will remain on view through June 15, during regular gallery hours — 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturdays. For more information, call the gallery at 775-786-0558.

Kirk Robertson covers the Churchill Arts Council scene.