The Flatlanders

The Flatlanders Now Again

Track List

Going Away

Julia

Wavin' My Heart Goodbye

Down in the Light of the Melon Moon

Right Where I Belong

My Wildest Dreams Grow Wilder Every Day

I Thought The Wreck Was Over

Yesterday Was Judgement Day

Now It's Now Again

All You Are Love

You Make It Look Easy

Pay The Alligator

Down on Filbert's Rise

South Wind of Summer

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(New West) The band that for three decades, was "more a legend than a band", has now become more a band than a legend, with the release of Now Again. Some thirty years after recording what was their one and only album, not only is the "legend" a band once again, but a band of Texas legends.

The Flatlanders are Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, best known for their individual careers as singers/songwriters. The three are longtime friends from Lubbock, Texas, who hooked up when, after various travels and endeavors in music took them elsewhere, they all returned to Lubbock as the 60's ended and the 70's began. Joe and Butch did not know each other at that time, but both were friends with Jimmie. Eventually, Jimmie introduced his two friends, and all three found they had much in common, and their personalities clicked together. Soon after, they found themselves sharing a house.

Even though all three had different musical styles, they shared a love of the same kinds of music that included everything from Jimmie Rodgers to The Beatles. They began playing together, never considering themselves a formal "band", but rather good friends that played music together. At that time, each wrote seperately, but they all sang the songs. They found that their music appealed both to an older, more traditional minded audience, as well as people of their own generation, and they became a popular local favorite. Some radio station people picked up on this, and put in a word with Nashville's Shelby Singleton who owned Plantation Records. Singleton had just scored with Jeanie C. Riley's cover of Tom T. Hall's "Harper Valley P.T.A.", and they thought this band of twangy Texans might have something similar to offer.

Off to Nashville the boys headed, still using the name The Super Natural Playboys, which they used while playing in Texas. Singleton thought the name "Playboys" might offend the church going, two-stepping crowd, with connotations of a Hugh Hefner connection. An off the cuff remark, regarding where the boys were from, "the flatlands of Texas" lead to what would ultimately become their official name- The Flatlanders.

However, things didn't go well for them in Nashville. After the sessions were recorded, "Dallas" was released as a single, under the name Jimmie Dale & the Flatlanders. It failed miserably, Nashville didn't take to their "twangy, hillbilly" sound, and the album was shelved. Singleton allegedly released a limited number of the album on 8 track, though this could be a part of the "Flatlander legend", as no one's actually ever seen a copy. The album was released a decade later in England, under the title One More Road. It wasn't until a decade after that, the album received wider distribution when Rounder released it in 1990 under the title More A Legend Than A Band- by which time, "the band that wasn't", was indeed a legend.

After the initial album was shelved, the boys headed back to Texas, this time to Austin. They played together locally as The Flatlanders for a couple of more years, until they finally drifted apart, ultimately carving out solo careers for themselves, taking very different musical paths .

Joe Ely became the most commercially successful with his high octane brand of roadhouse roots rock. He went on to re-record several of the songs from that Flatlanders album, which opened the door for Jimmie Dale, who went on to success with his spiritual-cowboy music. Butch, the most laid back of the group, embarked on whatever endeavor struck his fancy at any given time, focusing mostly on songwriting, but recorded and performed whenever the spirit moved him. Over the course of the years though, the three remained close friends, frequently playing together and writing songs for each other. Yet still through their individual successes, the mystique and legend surrounding The Flatlanders only grew.

In 1997, while Joe was signed with MCA, he called on his old pals to reunite for a track on The Horse Whisperer soundtrack, which resulted in the cut "South Wind Of Summer." They next turned up in 1998 on a David Letterman show. In 1999, they turned up yet again with an appearance at one of the New York Summer Stage concerts in Central Park, which resulted in the New York Times doing a half page feature on a band no one had heard of, which created quite a buzz. They turned up yet again in 2001 for the cut "Blue Wind Blew" on the Poet: A Tribute To Townes Van Zandt CD. Over the course of the past three years, they'd embark on sporadic short tours as The Flatlanders. All this fueled diehard Flatlanders fans hopes that a more permanent reunion was on the horizon.

With the release of Now Again, while a reunion of the band may only be temporary, at least they leave behind a permanent record of the event, via this CD.

Now Again is a departure from that original recording in many ways. This marks the first time that all three have co-written together. On the original Flatlanders album, the songs were written by each artist alone. All but two of the songs, Utah Phillip's "Going Away", and "Julia" which was solely written by Butch Hancock, were written by all three members. "Down In The Light Of The Melon Moon" came about when Joe had mentioned he was writing a gunfighter song, that was in the same vein as "Ode To Billy Joe", wherein the song ends leaving a hint of mystery, due to things that are never revealed in the song, leaving questions unanswered, and the listener wondering about the answers. Jimmie said he was working on a similar type song that left certain things unanswered, as was Butch. They all compared notes, tossed out what each had been working on, put their heads together and came up with a whole new song using that theme. "Melon Moon" turns out to be a stunning masterpiece of a narrative song, and just one of the standout tracks on this CD.

Also different, on their first album, each artist took his turn at vocals. On Now Again, all three sing together, trading off verses and delving into 2 and 3 part harmonies. As different as their vocal styles are, and as unlikely as it sounds, being that these three artists aren't known for harmonies- the differences in their vocals are the very thing that make them work surprisingly well. The one thing carried over from the original Flatlanders album, is that besides Joe, Jimmie Dale and Butch, musical saw player Steve Wesson and vocalist Tony Pearson drop by for cameos.

The Joe Ely produced Now Again, was three years in the making. The short tours over the past three years were to test drive the new songs. Here, they were able to see what worked and what still needed work, and afterwards would head back into the studio to tweek and fine tune. Given they weren't signed to a label, they weren't under any pressure to complete the project, and wanted to get it finished to their own liking, before they shopped it around.

Thirty years is a long time to wait for a sophomore release, but The Flatlanders have made the wait well worth it. Now Again is full of twangy shuffles, clever play on word songs, dreamy ballads, and tongue in cheek humor. When The Flatlanders reunited for the cut on the Horse Whisperer soundtrack, not just the one track, "South Wind Of Summer", came out of those sessions. Three songs did, and though the other two were not included on that soundtrack, they are on Now Again. "South Wind Of Summer" is reprised here, but in a different version than on the soundtrack. The other two songs from that session included here, are the hillbilly-esque "Fillberts Rise" and the dancehall shuffling "My Wildest Dreams." "Now It's Again" is what Joe calls the CD's "deja vu" cut, conjuring up memories of that time back in Lubbock when the three friends were sharing a house. As Jimmie described it, "Waving My Heart Goodbye" is a new song that sounds like an old song, a honky tonker that one could easily hear Hank Williams doing. "Yesterday Was Judgment Day" is a call and response spiritual, while "I Thought The Wreck Was Over" is downright Waylon-esque.

After listening to this CD, the Flatlanders just may be right after all, that they're just more a bunch of friends playing together, than they are a "band". While the listener is going to have a good time listening to this CD, it's more than apparent these three longtime friends had just as good a time making it. For someone that's just hearing the Flatlanders with this CD, you're in for a real treat. For long time fans that have been clamoring for this CD for a very long time, you'll soon be asking: Now, how about AGAIN guys?

AnnMarie Harrington Take Country Back May 2002

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