Little Bit Of Promise

With Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock was part of the wonderful but commercially disastrous Flatlanders triumvirate in the early seventies. After they broke up all desillusioned, it apparently took the buddhist of the band a couple of years to recover before he finally got around to record his first solo album. The aptly named West Texas Waltzes And Dust-Blown Tractor Tunes, released in 1978, was well worth the wait though. "So I left home to ramble..."

Butch Hancock - I Grew To Be A Stranger

Crossed My Mind

The holy triumvirate of Ely, Gilmore and Hancock proves that the oft-ridiculed singing saw can easily replace country's much more obvious pedal steel, which can indeed be heard on Willie's just-as-melancholic original. Steve Wesson's the player of the thing, and he's a master.

Flatlanders - One Day At A Time
Willie Nelson - One Day At A Time

The Flatlanders: Now Again

Faithful readers of this blog will know all about my admiration for the Flatlanders´ More A Legend Than A Band by now. A country rock classic that spawned the solo careers of main members Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, it was recorded back in ´72, but for various reasons never got a proper release until Rounder records finally did it justice in ´91.

In ´02, the Lubbock three finally decided to get together again, and that´s what we´re on about in this post, because the resulting Now Again is definitely an album that deserves the attention of twang lovers everywhere. It´s nowhere near as good as that famed debut of course, but hey, that was too tough an act to follow anyway. It´s mighty fine to hear three great singers (and pals too) working together once again though, and the songs - all but two written collectively - are definitely of high quality.

The upbeat Right Where I Belong is a good example. "If it´s dog eat dog and cat eat cat, I might never see the light until I eat my hat... I´m caught between day and night and pretty mama I don´t care..." Ely´s typical My Wildest Dreams Grow Wilder Every Day showcases his rockabilly side to good effect, while The South Wind Of Summer starts off as a ballad that reminds me a bit of Gram Parsons´ Hickory Wind, until it surprisingly picks up speed and ends with some pretty wild picking. Strange though that it fades out just as things are really starting to cook...

And that´s where we get to the downside of Now Again: the production department. It all seems just a little too tame in here somehow. Where the flame undeniably still burns, the Flatlanders never seem to catch enough wind to turn this album into the blazing prairie fire one would hope for. If they´d ever decide to record together again, I´d recommend James Luther Dickinson to oversee proceedings. Satisfaction guaranteed.

And that signed album cover pictured above? That´s all mine, baby...

The Flatlanders - Right Where I Belong MP3

The Flatlanders - My Wildest Dreams Grow Wilder Every Day MP3

The Flatlanders - South Wind Of Summer MP3