Jimmie Dale Gilmore - No Lonesome Tune

from "One Endless Night" 2000. Rounder
After two critically acclaimed albums on Hightone Records in the 1980s, Jimmie Dale Gilmore moved up to major label Elektra in the '90s. But the kudos did not translate into sales -- only one of his three Elektra albums scraped into the bottom reaches of the country charts -- and by the turn of the century he was back on an independent: the folkie label Rounder (distributing his own Windcharger imprint). Three and a half years separated Braver New World, the last Elektra album, from One Endless Night, his Rounder debut, but Gilmore apparently hadn't spent much time writing in the interim. Of the 12 listed songs (there was also a bonus track, the rockabilly "DFW," referring to Fort Worth and Dallas), only two are co-written by the singer. One Endless Night is a compendium of Texas songwriting, including the work of Gilmore cronies and mentors Butch Hancock, Townes Van Zandt, Willis Alan Ramsey, and Walter Hyatt, as well as such familiar names as John Hiatt, Jesse Winchester, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, and Steve Gillette. Though Gilmore had always mixed his own compositions with covers, this album presents him basically as an interpretive singer, and you have to wonder what it was that he is bringing to the Grateful Dead's "Ripple" or the standard "Mack the Knife" that is all that special. The answer is, not much. Gilmore's voice had become less pinched and more confident in the course of his belated solo recording career but not enough so that he could be recommended as a singer rather than as a singer/songwriter.

AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann [-]

Jimmie Dale Gilmore displays a more traditional sound than on his last release, 1996's "Braver Newer World," while maintaining the edge that has identified him as one of the leaders of the alt. country world for nearly two decades.

Ten of the 13 songs are covers from some of Gilmore's favorite writers. A couple of tunes ("Ramblin' Man," "Banks of the Guadelupe") by fellow Flatlander Butch Hancock are obvious choices as is Townes Van Zandt's "No Lonesome Tune," which Gilmore describes as "the closest he ever got to writing a happy song." Gilmore's music has always blended country, rock and folk, so it's not surprising that the Grateful Dead's "Ripple" would be a good fit. The classic "Mack the Knife" would seem to be a stranger pick, but the song works for Gilmore largelybecause of the steel guitar work of Darrell Scott.

Of the originals, the title track, which features Emmylou Harris on harmonies, has most in common with Gilmore's recent work. "Blue Shadows," co-written with Hal Ketchum, has a Roy Orbison feel.

The closing track "DFW" is inexplicably unlisted and uncredited in the liner notes, presumably because Gilmore and/or co-producer Buddy Miller thought the upbeat rockabilly tune might appear to be out of place with the rest of the album. Though Gilmore relies primarily on the work of other writers, this disc shows that he remains at the head of the alt. country class.

Reviewed by Robert Wooldridge/ Country Standard Time





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