Personnel: Jimmie Dale Gilmore (background vocals); Lloyd Maines (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, steel guitar, background vocals); Harold Bradley (guitar, acoustic guitar); Dale Sellers (electric guitar); Tommy Williams (fiddle); David Briggs (keyboards); Jerry Kroon (drums); Augie Brown, Jimmie Dale Gilmore & The Flatlanders, Walter Hyatt (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Bill Harris .
Recording information: Music City Music Hall, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: John Guider.
Jimmie Dale Gilmore's self-titled sophomore effort boasted a less aggressive sound than his Joe Ely-produced debut, and that suited Gilmore's wavering tenor and impressionistic lyrical style just fine, though the album also sounds like an attempt to blend a traditional country approach with Gilmore's rather individualistic style. This time out, Gilmore wrote (or co-wrote half) of the album's ten songs, while old friend Butch Hancock ponied up two tunes of his own, and the production (by Bruce Bromberg and Lloyd Maines) generates a laid-back honky tonk vibe that recalls the feel of a Texas dancehall without forcing the issue. The album rescues one classic tune from the long-lost Flatlanders album ("Dallas"), and "Deep Eddy Blues" and "Beautiful Rose" prove he had plenty of other great songs at his disposal, which marks a major improvement over the covers-heavy debut. Sometimes, however, the spunky tempo and precise accompaniment of the music seem to be working against the grain of Gilmore's often world-weary songs, though Jimmie Dale himself accompanies these arrangements with grace and confidence. Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a fine album and a step up from Fair and Square, but in retrospect it sounds most like a stepping stone on the way to his definitive recording, After Awhile. ~ Mark Deming
With Gilmore's self-titled album, the Texan singer follows his 1988 solo debut, FAIR AND SQUARE. The album was recorded in Nashville, but this is not mainstream country music. Rather, Gilmore was one of the fathers of the '90s No Depression movement that includes such "alternative country" bands as Uncle Tupelo and Freakwater. The songs are mostly Gilmore originals, though a few numbers were co-written with Butch Hancock, with whom Gilmore played in The Flatlanders in the '70s.
Sturdy poetics and subtle existentialism imbue the lyrics with both surprise and rich character. Gilmore's singing suggests a higher-register Willie Nelson, but it is unquestionably his own voice. His Texas roots embrace the homeland's swing as well as the high and lonesome open spaces of the prairie. The album includes his wonderful "Dallas," originally recorded in 1971 by The Flatlanders, and "Beautiful Rose."