Customer Reviews

Now Again

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a strange marriage. The hard rocking and down-to-earth Texan Joe Ely, the mystical and ephemerally ghost-like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, with a voice that just cannot be, and the puzzle that is Butch Hancock - a man with the intellect and skills, it seems, to govern a large corporation or a small state.

We're of an age, the Flatlanders and me. And we share a vision of the West Texas flatlands. Although I've lately become much more enamored of Robert Earl Keen's musical tours of Texas towns and descriptions of Texas people, and can never get enough of Steve Earle, I'll kill to hear anything new by Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Butch adds a key ingredient, making the trio unique.

This long awaited collection, which they've promised in their live shows for years, is worth the wait for people like me. But I had the sense, listening to it for the first time, that others, not so steeped in the legend, not so attuned to the nuances, may find it rather ordinary.

Joe's rendition of "I Thought The Wreck Was Over" is getting all the initial air play locally. Fine. Hear it a time or time and file it away. It would be a "b" side on any Joe Ely album. And when Joe does it live in 2010 - his excellent live albums have been released in 1980, 1990 and 2000 (you gotta have all three) -it may take off.

Particularly appealing are tunes like "Going Away", Down on Filbert's Rise", and "South Wind of Summer". "Down in the Light of the Melon Moon" is different and may take a couple of listens to sort out and evaluate. But I liked hearing it the first time.

Musicality is excellent throughout, highlighted by Jimmie Dale's acoustic guitar, which is so good it elevates some otherwise "just okay" tracks to the level of "gotta keep hearin' it". "Now it's Now Again", the title tune, is also excellent, and may be the cut that endures longest. "Right Where I Belong" may also come out of this album as something we'll listen to ten years hence.

The allure of the work is that it offers so much variety, a little bit of something for all of us who love these guys. The disappointment is that there is no "Dallas" here. No "Tonight I'm Gonna Go Downtown" -- no single song that you just can't stop playing, again and again.

But I'll take it.

I expected this cd to be good, but not that good. This is a classic, I can see magazines in 10 years with people talking about the first time they heard this cd, and how it changed their life. Many songs just sound like classics written by Chuck Berry or The Carters or Woodie Guthrie or Hank Williams, actually I went to the booklet to make sure the songs were written by Hancock, Guilmore and Ely.

This is much much better than "More a legend than a band"which is more a cd for completists of these great guys than a real band cd. This is the real thing, the promise delivered and the river that flows.

I can't wait for the next CD from these three together , so buy them by the thousands, buy this cd until they record a third one!

I've been a fan of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock for years, and while this record is not quite as good as the best solo records they've produced, it's solidly enjoyable -- music that makes you feel good, like hearing an old Grateful Dead song you haven't heard for years. Don't expect a rocking live Joe Ely album, or you'll be disappointed. And don't expect a Roy Orbisonesque romantic tour de force like a Jimmie Dale album. Also don't expect the Texas Bob Dylan, as you would with Butch Hancock. It's a blend of country, folk, rock and blues.

Joe's contribution is the weakest of the three. They take turns on lead vocals from song to song, and the only one Joe sings that I really like a lot is the nostalgic "Now It's Now Again." There are only four songs out of fourteen, though, that I don't care for much at all (2 sung by Joe, 1 by Jimmie Dale and 1 by Butch), and so the 4 stars. "My Wildest Dreams Grow Wilder Every Day" keeps alive the Texas swing of Bob Wills, and sounds like one of Jimmie Dale's Hightone records of the late 80s/early 90s. "The South Wind of Summer" is a beautiful ballad. For me the extra kick is the less romantic, more down-to-earth yet philosophical lyrics which I recognize as Butch Hancock's, on songs like "Yesterday Was Judgement Day" and "You Make It Look Easy." Great stuff! Definitely music that speaks to my experience. I hope the Flatlanders make it to Utah this summer!

The Flatlanders were a hidden treasure for those of us industrious enough to find and savor them. I came to them through Butch Hancock, who could rightfully claim to be the best American Songwriter if he cared about such things. Through him, I found Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and the original Flatlanders recording, More a Legend than a Band, a forgotten treasure resurrected only in the 1990s. Reuniting as the Flatlanders today, Butch, Joe, and Jimmie are not less than the sum of their parts, just something different and separately wonderful. There are no songs on Now Again that would rank among Hancock's best. Nothing rocks quite like the songs on Joe Ely's live albums. Nothing seems quite as spiritual as Gilmore's solo efforts. But all of this is okay, because Now Again is fun. The songs are smarter than anything playing on the radio. Moreover, it is an album by great friends, and it sounds like an album by great friends. I hope this hidden treasure remains hidden no more.

Is it fair to judge an artist's current work against the work they've done in the past - especially when that past work was some 30-plus years ago? Probably not. But how else to rate NOW AGAIN? One certainly cannot ignore the 1972 sesssions eventually released in 1990 as MORE A LEGEND THAN A BAND, itself one of the finest recordings EVER, country or otherwise. A haunting recording unto itself, that record lingers in the memory when one puts NOW AGAIN on for its first spin and it's hard not to come away disappointed.

The difference is, both literally and figuratively, as stark as that between electric and acoustic guitar. Where MORE A LEGEND... was plaintive, NOW AGAIN is rollicking. The high lonesome, almost alien musical saw that wrapped itself around the vocals dominated by Jimmie Dale Gilmore is back, still handled by Steve Wesson, but it's layered deep in the mix, lost in production that, while I'm reluctant to describe it as "glossy" when compared to many modern country recordings, lacks the depth present in MORE A LEGEND... - a depth also created by pure emotion; emotion nearly absent on NOW AGAIN. Only the album's opener, "Going Away," and closer, "South Wind of Summer," begin to approach the loss, desperation, hope, joy, and sadness that defined even the least of the tracks from MORE A LEGEND. The remainder of the tracks are not bad, but are instead generally forgettable, upbeat toe-tappers, not unlike many released on solo recordings by Joe Ely and Butch Hancock.

Songwriting and recording quality aside, one is also taken off guard by the equal distribution of vocal duties on NOW AGAIN. Jimmie Dale Gilmore is relegated to one-third of the lead vocals, leaving the much less distinctive vocals of Butch Hancock and Joe Ely to carry the rest of the album. Hardcore fans have doubtless explored each member's solo recordings and one can certainly make the statement that all three have recorded better songs individually - better entire albums, even - than all three turn in on NOW AGAIN.

That said, NOW AGAIN is still a good record - heads and shoulders better than 99% of the "country" albums released so far this year. One would like to judge it free of any expectations based on MORE A LEGEND..., but that is nearly impossible. The listener would be best served, then, to approach NOW AGAIN as a really pleasant record, just not a very important one.

Just finished listening through the new CD "Now Again" from The Flatlanders (Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock) and it is everything we could have hoped for!

Simply put, it is a fantastic! Worth the decades long wait.

Pay the Alligator is great Texas r&b in the unique style of the three living-legends together. South Wind of Summer is the last track and it brings back every great memory of that lonely West Texas landscape sound which helped make The Flatlanders original album one of the greatest, most sought after cult-classics in Texas music history.

Only Don Imus could pick this diamond out. Listen or watch IMUS in the Morning on MSNBC and you'll hear this cd a hundred times. Each time it gets better and better. Jimmy Dale Gilmore is brilliant.

First, a disclaimer. I bought this CD off of Amazon after reading a blurb in the Wall Street Journal sometime in late June. When the Lubbock, TX connection was referenced (where I was raised and went to college) my interest was piqued, even though I haven't lived in Lubbock or west Texas since 1977. The article jogged some memories of Joe Ely and his band playing at least a couple of my fraternity parties back in the mid-70's...I was vaguely aware that Ely had carved out a respectable career in the intervening years.

After having now listened to the CD a few dozen times, I have a few reactions:

(1) The way these guys harmonize, it is almost a tragedy that they haven't done more work together.
(2) Hearing "All You Are Love" for the first time is an experience comparable to hearing The Beatles sing "Yesterday" for the first time back in 1965. The song is that tremendous - a simply beautiful ballad that almost gets better with every listen. It is unbelievable that it is not all over the radio.
(3) Songs such as "Down in the Light of the Melon Moon", "Right Where I Belong" and "South Wind of Summer" are only merely "great". It seems that almost all of them stay in your mind long after you finish listening to them.

In summary, Imus is doing music fans a real favor by letting the secret out. Talk about an almost buried treasure otherwise!

A little bit of Jimmy Rogers, Bob Wills, bluegrass and a whole lot of the kind of country music I grew up with in the 60s' and you never hear any more on any radio station. All selections are great. My personal favorite is Going Away. Some unique and authentic country music from 3 great musicians.

This is *much* better than their old stuff. I'm a big fan of the old Joe Ely albums, but the original Flatlanders album has always struck me as a bit dull and monotonous. Sure, it's legendary and all that, but the songs that Gilmore wrote really came to life later... when Ely recorded them on his classic MCA albums. As for this new record, it's much more playful and melodically rich, and is packed with plenty of catchy songs, with memorable choruses and well-crafted melodic hooks. Even I -- someone who has long been singularly unimpressed by this band -- can groove along to it, and be taken in by the relaxed, masterful confidence these guys bring out in each other. Besides, it's better than anything these three have done solo for the last few years. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to find out what the fuss was about this alt.country supergroup.