The Flatlanders Albums (5)
What The Critics Say
Considering that the album that made the Flatlanders a legend in country music circles was cut in 1972, it's hard not to think of the trio -- featuring three of Texas' finest singer/songwriters, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock -- as a throwback to the Golden Age of Lone Star music in the 1970s and '80s that has somehow managed to survive into the 21st century. But the Flatlanders make it clear that they're still living in the here and now on their third album since reuniting in 2002, Hills and Valleys. The album begins with three songs that address contemporary tragedies in personal terms -- "Homeland Refugee" tells the tale of one man's struggle to get by after losing everything he owns in the financial meltdown, "Borderless Love" uses a relationship as a metaphor for the fence being constructed on the U.S./Mexico border, and "After the Storm" is set in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. While these songs certainly give Hills and Valleys a greater currency than the Flatlanders' earlier work, they also speak to the facts of life in Texas in 2009, something these men know more than bit about, and if the rest of the set explores the personal rather than the political, the music shows Ely, Gilmore, and Hancock can still write and sing about the heart, the soul, and the spirit with a touch that's truly timeless. Unlike 2004's disappointing Wheels of Fortune, Hills and Valleys is dominated by fresh material written collaboratively by the trio, and there's an "all for one, one for all" élan to this music that brings out strong performances in the three vocalists. And producer Lloyd Maines and his team of gifted backing musicians provide strong and soulful accompaniment throughout. Thirty-seven years after their first album got lost in the shuffle, the Flatlanders have not only survived, they have a lot to say about what they've seen, and Hills and Valleys is proof these men still have plenty of songs in them yet. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
If only the "more a legend than a band" that seems to surround the Flatlanders were true and the "legend" were allowed to be what it is. But people keep dragging stuff out of the woodwork, and the three companeros who made that unit up -- Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, Jimmie Dale Gilmore -- have decided that being a band is a better thing and have reunited to record and tour. Man, people can't leave well enough alone. New West has dug up this old tape from the Flatlanders' halcyon days, recorded at the dawn of the cosmic cowboy craze in Austin. What it proves first and foremost is that these guys should never have reunited (no one can blame them for wanting to get paid, but the myth was better before it became reunion flesh) and that their individual identities were formed even back then. Gilmore is the high lonesome country songwriter, Ely is the hillbilly rocker (his lead vocal on "Honky Tonk Blues" and "Settin' the Woods on Fire" would make Hank Williams smile and then hoot in delight), and while Hancock is clearly here, he doesn't sing lead on any of these tracks though he wrote a few of them. The fidelity on this thing is far from perfect, and it sounds like there are maybe 25 people in the audience tops. One way cool thing is you get to hear Steve Wesson's musical saw very well and mystic beat legend John X. Reed's killer guitar picking on Al Strehli's fine "So I'll Run." This is a back-porch singalong brought into the barroom. There are tunes by Townes Van Zandt ("Waitin' Around to Die" and "Tecumseh Valley"), a slew of traditional tunes, Jesse Fuller's "San Francisco Bay Blues," Bob Dylan's "Walkin' On Down the Line," Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me," "Jole Blon," and more. It's loose, easy, and the vibe is relaxed and fun. The fidelity isn't great, but the performance is full of energy and verve. But it's not the second coming that New West label boss Peter Jesperson is making it out to be (and no doubt gads of alt-country/Postcard 2 crazies as well). He states that Ely thinks the most unique thing about the tape is that it exists at all. Exactly. No more, no less. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
When the Flatlanders' first (and for many years only) album finally received a proper release in America in 1990, 18 years after it was recorded, it was called More a Legend Than a Band. Three decades after those first sessions, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock, three of Texas' most celebrated singer/songwriters, finally made it back into the studio to cut a second album, and on Now Again the Flatlanders finally sound like an honest-to-goodness band -- -- or at least full collaborators -- in a way they never did before. While Gilmore tended to dominate the songs on More a Legend Than a Band (not surprising, since the band was often billed as Jimmie Dale Gilmore & the Flatlanders), Now Again sounds a lot more democratic; the glorious waver of Gilmore's tenor is still the band's strongest vocal presence, but the bluesy bite of Joe Ely's voice and Butch Hancock's homey storyteller's twang get a much bigger share of the spotlight, and their harmonies have both the good humor and the Friday-night enthusiasm of a barroom singalong (though with a good bit more precision). With two exceptions, all the songs for Now Again were written collectively by the trio, and the material honors the three distinctive but complimentary personalities on board, from the easygoing roadhouse stomp of "Wavin' My Heart Goodbye" and the down-home metaphysics of "Down in the Light of the Melon Moon" to the bluesy lope of "Right Where I Belong" and the joyously goofy neo-rockabilly of "Pay the Alligator." Rather than sounding like a reunion of some aging cosmic cowboys, Now Again is the work of three singular talents who are also good friends, and the give and take of their musical personalities speaks both for their respect for one another and the understanding of their abilities; in short, this time out the Flatlanders really are a band, and Now Again is an album from them that's strong enough to honor their long-simmering legend. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
'More a Legend Than a Band'
Release Date 10/31/1994
Tracks 13
Label Rounder
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
In any other circumstance, that title would be hyperbole, but in the case of the Flatlanders, it's the simple truth. Although their only commercial release during their nearly four-year existence was an eight track on the tacky Plantation label, bandleaders Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock went on to become pioneers in alternative country, directly influencing bands ranging from Uncle Tupelo to Ely disciples the Clash. This 1990 reissue gives that eight track a proper CD release for the first time ever (minus two weaker tracks, covers of the country standards "Hello Stranger" and "Waiting for a Train"), plus four previously unreleased tracks recorded during the same March 1972 sessions. The Flatlanders didn't fit in the least in early-'70s Nashville, both because their music is too weird (Gilmore, a devout Hindu, contributes a song of devotion called "Bhagavan Decreed," and non-musician Steve Wesson contributes musical saw to the proceedings) and, frankly, too country. Tunes like the heartbreaking "Tonight I'm Gonna Go Downtown" have much more in common with Lefty Frizzell and Jimmie Rodgers than the countrypolitan glop of the era. The percussionless, all-acoustic instrumentation is akin to traditional bluegrass, but the gentle, easygoing vibe (tempos barely even break into a trot on the entire album) are much more akin to mellow hippie folk-rock à la Pearls Before Swine. Every song is a small gem, with "Downtown" and Gilmore's career highlight, "Dallas," being the very best of a uniformly fabulous lot. The entire '90s alt-country movement can trace its genesis to these powerful and underappreciated songs. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
