The Flatlanders - Biography
The Flatlanders were a legendary Texas band not for what they accomplished, which was one unreleased album cut in 1972 and rejected by every major and indie label, but for their personnel. The band’s three singer/songwriters were Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, and they all went on to make a major impact on country music. Although none of them ever became superstars they all were highly influential artists in the alt.country scene which has now morphed into the category known as Americana. They reunited in 2001, thirty years after they cut their first album, as an Americana supergroup of legendary Texas icons.
Gilmore had been known Ely and Hancock, since they were teenagers. Gilmore made some demos for Buddy Holly’s father in the 60s, but didn’t get any interest from a label. Hancock had been gigging as a folk singer and Ely had had a few country rock bands, but when the friends started playing together in Lubbock in 1970 they knew they had something special with their blend of folk, rock and hard core country. They got an apartment together and added Steve Wesson on autoharp and musical saw, Tommy Hancock (no relation) on fiddle and Tony Pearson to the line up and called themselves Jimmie Dale and The Flatlanders. A demo they made got them a chance to record with Shelby Singleton, a country music producer for Mercury Records. (He later bought the Sun Records catalogue from Sam Phillips.) At the Nashville sessions for Singleton they recorded “Dallas” and “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown,” later hits for Ely, but their folk meets country sound was a hard sell in 1972. Singleton released “Dallas” as a single but when it died he abandoned the idea of putting out an album, although it was allegedly manufactured as an 8-track tape that went unreleased.
The band broke up and the principals Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, all went on to have important careers, with Ely the most successful. In 1980 London’s rockabilly reissue label Charly put out the Flatlanders album as One More Road (The 1972 Recordings) sparking the trio to reunite in the late 80s at the Kerrville Folk Festival. Rounder Records finally put out the sessions on CD as More a Legend Than a Band (1990 Rounder), with additional tracks that didn’t make the original cut.
In 1997 they were invited to contribute music to the soundtrack of the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer. They composed a new tune, “South Wind of Summer,” and it appeared on The Horse Whisperer Soundtrack (1998 MCA), which led to the formal reformation of the band and their second album Now Again (2002 New West). They composed most of the tunes together and their folky country/rock sound is sharper than ever. They followed up with Wheels of Fortune (2004 New West). They also unearthed an early live gig by the band, Live ’72 (2004 New West). The recording has muddy sound, but will be of interest to avid fans. The band also released a DVD of a more recent performance, Live from Austin TX (2004 New West). In 2009 the band released Hills & Valleys, followed by The Odessa Tapes in 2012.