Customer Reviews

Hills & Valleys (Dig)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like a fine wine, these guys just get better with age. Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Joe Ely have always had a real talent for putting together excellent backup bands, and this album features some of their best, as usual. The quality of the production and playing here is superb. The poetic quality of their lyrics gets better with each passing year, and the liberal use of their "either/or, both/and" phrases make it signature Flatlanders. ("It goes without saying that I must say, some things are better left unsaid" -- reminds me of a verbal yin/yang symbol--nobody else has the creativity to do this and repeatedly get away with it with such style!)

While every track is outstanding in itself, there are three which, for me, make this record such an exceptional experience. "The Way We Are" is a fantastic rocker -- if you've got the blah's or life's just feeling too hard at the moment, crank this one up to full volume and dance around the room for three minutes, you're guaranteed to feel 100% better afterwards. (While Jimmie Dale Gilmore is normally known for his heart-wrenchingly beautiful ballads, this man can rock!) And then "Free the Wind" is an exquisite hymn to the higher power and eternal truth behind it all. But then the one that finishes me off completely is "There's Never Been", the final track, sung with such power and beauty by Joe Ely. The harmonies and guitars are so subtle and moving, it'll break your heart wide open.

If this doesn't get a Grammy nomination, I'd be awfully surprised (but in what category??). The Flatlanders are in a category all their own. All Jimmie, Joe and Butch fans are in for a real treat with this one. I feel honored to be able to give it the first five star review (which, I'm sure, will be the first of many).

I have every solo Flatlanders album as well as all of their previous group efforts -- more than 30 in total. In my book, there are no better writers, singers, and players around. This album is full of gems from start to finish. The first song, Homeland Refuge, is simply ingenious. It tells the story of a family forced to leave California for the Dust Bowl after their home is foreclosed by, as Joe puts it, "the so-called Security and Trust." In two years of reading about the financial crisis I have never come across anything as insightful as the use here of "so-called". The re-invocation of Woody's Dust Bowl Refugees is clear. And speaking of Woody, this album's version of Sowing on the Mountain may be the best interpretaion I have ever heard of a song by the great man. It's hard to pick a favorite on this record but if I had to, I'd go with Thank God for the Road. Butch is at the top of his game. I'm not clever enough to describe how perfectly this song is constructed and delivered; you'll just have to listen. But I could say that about every other song as well. Cry for Freedom has the timeless quality of a Biblically-inspired spiritual that sounds instantly antique. Borderless Love should be a hit around the world if there is any justice. The variety of styles is wide-ranging: blues, folk, country, reggae-waltz (!); it's all here. Jimmie's voice remains as clear as a bell, almost holy, and Joe and Butch are like reliable old friends. In terms of the quality of the writing, I'll just say that listening to the Flatlanders is like attending a writing masterclass by some of the best wordsmiths on the planet. They make you think about and look at the world much differently. Highly recommended.

This record has had a strange effect on me. Usually I get fatigued from listening to any particular music too many times, but the opposite is true of Hills and Valleys. Some of the songs have a healing quality and a timelessness to them. Great music. My favorites are Borderless Love, Free The Wind, Love's Own Chains, Homeland Refugee, After The Storm, Thank God For The Road (best if heard while driving). I've heard many people say this is the Flat's best record yet. Hear them live if you get a chance.

The Flatlanders: Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock's critically-acclaimed, masterpiece album, Hills and Valleys is #1 this week on the AMA Americana Airplay Chart!

It has now been siix weeks on the AMA chart...four weeks in the Top Ten...and this week Hills and Valleys claims the top spot on the chart!

With Lloyd Maines producing and playing several instruments, even singing backup vocals, the musicianship is more than world class. A great touch is having the other two early Flatlanders from 1972 on the CD: Tony Pearson and Steve Wesson.

Joe, Jimmie, and Butch wrote eight of the tunes.

"Homeland Refuge", the first cut, is the best song I have heard all year. Joe Ely sings the song. It is this years' perfect saga of a California family that lost their home and everything else. They retrace their depression-era Grandfather's Route 66, America's Motheroad, way back to the old dust bowl.

Here is an excerpt from that song, certainly destined to be a classic:

"I lost my home when the deal went bust.
To the so-called Security and Trust.
I planned my life the way they said I should.
I sent my wife and kids ahead.
I'm right behind you, so I said.
I'll be there when I get there if that's good.

Now I'm leaving California for the dust bowl.
They took it all, there's nowhere else to go.
The pastures of plenty are burning by the sea.
And I'm just a homeland refuge.
.......

Everything about Hills and Valleys is amazing.

Johnny Hughes Texas Poker Wisdom

My wife & I had the good luck to see the Flatlanders live a few weeks ago.
They did most of these songs and it was very impressive. We've been playing the cd fairly constantly since. I have the earlier cds from the last few years and they are okay, but this one is at a much higher level. Homeland Refuge, Borderless Love, Free the Wind, Love's Own Chains are fine, but when The Way We Are cranks up we look at one and other & get to dancing. Can't ask for much more. It's very heartening that these guys still have so much fire and poignancy.

When the Flatlanders' original 1972 release was re-issued in 1991 it was given the title "More a Legend than a Band," a nod to the semi-mythical stature the recording had by then acquired. With their new CD "Hills and Valleys" the Lubbock-born threesome are now without question more a band than a legend. Moving beyond the mutually respectful collaborations of "Now Again" and "Wheels of Fortune," this is a true melding of the individual talents of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. For the first time, the whole is clearly greater than the sum of its considerable parts.

The music still has the timeless quality which characterized previous Flatlanders efforts, but it's also now firmly rooted in present day realities. Two extraordinary songs anchor the CD. The opener, "Homeland Refugee," may be the finest and most moving commentary yet written on the current state of the American dream. It takes the story of 1930's depression-era migration from the dustbowl to California and turns it on its head. Job gone, family abandoned, and home repossessed by the "so-called Security and Trust," today's protagonist is now leaving California, where "the pastures of plenty burn by the sea," to return to the dustbowl. Weary, angry, and deeply compassionate, this is a song to be reckoned with, and one which Woody Guthrie would have understood only too well.

Complementing this is the penultimate cut, a propulsive, driving reworking of Woody Guthrie's own "Sowing on the Mountain" which picks up on the same apocalyptic end-of-days theme. Inevitably, "you're gonna reap just what you sow," and for a post-Katrina America, "there won't be water, be fire next time."

Although eight of the twelve cuts are billed as three-way co-writes it's the songs built around Butch Hancock's wordplay and Zen paradox that are among the most memorable, particularly "Just About Time" and "Thank God for the Road," which elevates his philosophical questioning into a kind of high plains haiku.

And in almost every song there's an acute awareness of the passage of time - friends now for over forty years, Joe, Jimmie and Butch know that the road does not go on for ever, and that what needs to be done had better be done soon: "Sooner or later it's now or never; don't you think it's just about time?"

As in previous collaborations the three Flatlanders surround themselves with a stellar supporting cast, particularly Rob Gjersoe (whose role is so central to the group's distinctive sound that he should surely be promoted to full Flatlander status), the great Lloyd Maines (who plays pedal steel plus just about everything else stringed, and also produces), and Joel Guzman's moody accordion which provides delicate shading throughout.

"Hills and Valleys" is at times angry, at times accepting, but in the end it's the shared vision of three long-time friends looking with clear eyes at the world around them.

This new release by The Flatlanders is good-time music that makes you both reflect on life and its cycles and tap your feet and want to dance. Now who wouldn't want a record like that?

It has been years since The Flatlanders released their collaborative work, Wheels of Fortune, a CD that is, let's admit it, a very hard act to follow. While Hills and Valleys doesn't soar quite as much, it is a record that will surely grow on you the more you listen to it. It is in many ways, more reflective as it tackles issues of love lost, lives disrupted (After the Storm), financial crisis, (Homeland Refugee) and walls being built (Borderless Love). Yet true to The Flatlanders spirit and reputation, they take on these tough life issues in a life affirming, melodically beautiful manner that will leave you humming. There is no bitterness here, only affirmation that life goes on and that we are, after all is said and done, 'all the same'. Beautiful sentiments without sentimentality. What an achievement.

My favorite song on this CD is the toe tapping, 'The Way We Are', a fun, lively, 'put a smile on your face' tune written by Colin Gilmore and sung with great energy and feeling by his dad, Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Then there are the beautiful 'Wishing For A Rainbow' a soft, beautiful song that uses Butch Hancocks voice to full advantage and another Gilmore happy song, the double negatives 'No Way I'll Never Need You'. I love 'Thank God for the Road' another Butch Hancock tune that's destined to become a classic, the foot stomping, Sunday revival version of 'Sowing on the Mountain' and the beautiful, 'Free the Wind'.

Really, just buy this one. If you're a fan, you will love it. If you're not, you will be.

One more thing. The Flatlanders are currently touring to promote this CD. If they come to a town near you, don't miss them. They tour so rarely together and the new set will leave you on your feet and cheering.

These Texans find the heart of the matter in every song. They are still eloquent storytellers with stories we all need to be reminded of. There is a legacy here that defies description. The history of the Flatlanders is unique in American music. They could have rested on their laurels and been content to wear the mantle of legend, but they chose to keep taking chances, to keep telling their stories. This is not a surprise. They are the real deal.

I really enjoyed this cd. The music reminds me a lot of Willie Nelson. I had come across this quite by accident on Amazon and decided to chek it out. I am very pleased with it.

This is the best collective effort from the Flatlanders. I have seen them many times over the years in Houston both as singles and as a group. This CD showcases some stellar song writing and of course their own style of singing.