Cry One More Time with Gilmore and Alvin

If you’ve never heard – or even heard of – Jimmie Dale Gilmore, all you need to know is what one journalist wrote about the West Texas singer-songwriter many years ago: “His voice would make even Hank Williams cry.”

Which makes a lot of sense, since the now 81-year-old Gilmore patterned his fragile, high-lonesome tenor – Texas twang with a healthy side of longing, warmth, determination and despair – after the iconic country singer, among others. 

“It wasn’t deliberate, but I think I unconsciously copied all the singers that I liked back then, starting with Hank Williams,” Gilmore said over the phone from his Austin home last week. “Also Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves. Their phrasing, and how their voices affected me emotionally, all that seeped into the way I put it out when I sing. My voice has aged a bit over the years, but my style and everything hasn’t really changed much at all.”

Thank goodness. Gilmore might be an instant hero or an acquired taste depending on your predilection, but either way he’s a national treasure of what’s called alt-country or Americana these days. Whether he’s singing originals, material written by current partner Dave Alvin, or obscure or classic songs, you can’t mistake who’s singing them nor turn away very easily. That goes all the way back to his days in the Flatlanders, the Lubbock-formed folk-country trio with lifelong friends and colleagues Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, before each embarked on successful solo careers.

Or his mien may trace back even earlier, to his first group with Ely called TheT-Nickel House Band whose early demos were financed by other folks in Lubbock, namely Buddy Holly’s parents; a story in its own right.

“We met through an English journalist who came to town to research about Buddy – who Lubbock had basically forgotten by then – and his parents just liked what we were doing and wanted to help,” Gilmore said. 

That was also the time when Gilmore wrote one of the genre’s all-time great songs, “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown.” The song, like its singer’s voice, overflows with sadness and a thread of hope, with a simple concept that evokes contemplation. 

“You know, I was just very fortunate to have a circle of friends who were extremely talented songwriters,” explained Gilmore, whose critically acclaimed albums include Braver Newer World and Spinning Round the Sun. “They were all a big influence for me.” 

Ely, who passed away last year, remains an influence. Gilmore frequently plays much of his music along with others of the Flatlanders era. At the current moment, though, the singer-songwriter is partnered up with Dave Alvin, the founding member of the roots rock band the Blasters. Alvin has long been a solo artist, and frequent creator/collaborator of projects tending to the California and harder-edged branch of the Americana genre. Alvin has brought these efforts to the Lobero over the decades, which is where the two will perform on July 12. Gilmore and Alvin have made two albums together in the last decade – both with cartographic titles in Downey to Lubbock and TexiCali – and toured together on and off in a format that has them share the stage, performing each performing their individual songs and some they’ve co-written. 

“The music I do with Dave is real different, much more blues, which we both love,” Gilmore said, noting that they have been fans of each other for 15 years before they started playing as a duo. “Dave’s music is high-energy, frenetic power. Mine is more lyrical and I guess laid back, but the blend seems to work together somehow.”

That pairing is just the latest example of making a musical melting pop – which of course has been the formative backbone of the country since our founding 250 years ago – that the two singer-songwriters have engaged in all of their careers. 

“The blend of all the influences, the cross-pollination, is what it’s based on,” Gilmore said. 

At the current Almost Acoustic Tour dates, the listeners get to jump in on the connection, musical and otherwise. 

“Dave and I both are inspiring to each other and we really enjoy each other’s company and playing music together,” Gilmore said. “I think that transfers to the audience.”

Lenny Kaye, longtime guitarist for poet-rocker Patti Smith who has also produced albums by Suzanne Vega, Jim Carroll, and Soul Asylum among others, opens the show and sits in at the end of the Gilmore-Alvin set. Visit www.lobero.org