Hills and Valleys [Digipak]

Performer: The Flatlanders
Engineer: Pat Manske; Joe Ely; Lloyd Maines; Mike Morgan
Producer: Lloyd Maines
Distributor: RED Distribution

Notes: Adapter: Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Personnel: Butch Hancock (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely (vocals, guitar); Rob Gjersoe (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Lloyd Maines (acoustic guitar, lap steel guitar, dobro, banjo, mandolin); Martie Maguire (fiddle); Bryan Sandifer (cello); Bukka Allen (accordion, keyboards); Joel Jose Guzman (accordion); Rafael Gayol (drums, percussion); Pat Manske (percussion); Steve Wesson (musical saw). Audio Mixer: Pat Manske. Recording information: Bubba's Place, Austin, TX; Spur Studio; The Zone, Dripping Springs, TX. Arranger: Jimmie Dale Gilmore. When short-lived early-1970s progressive-country supergroup the Flatlanders (which launched the careers of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock) regrouped for a 2002 reunion album, few could have predicted they'd keep working together long enough for a third (fourth overall) release, let alone that it would stand up to their lofty legend as well as it does. As ever, the rough-and-ready voices of Ely and Hancock are perfect foils for Gilmore's ethereal, tremulous tones, and perhaps most important of all, the songs they tackle are fully up to snuff. Hancock's Bob Dylan-goes-to-West-Texas lyricism comes together with Gilmore's Zen-cowboy vibe and Ely's hard-bitten outlaw-country attitude as if the '80s and '90s never happened.

Rolling Stone (p.66) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[With] the wistful 'Homeland Refugee,' a Woody Guthrie-ish folk rock lament for the New Depression." Spin (pp.78-79) - "[I]t feels utterly right....Mining poetry from the everyday, 'Free the Wind' and 'Love's Own Chains' offer homespun observations on affairs of the heart."

Despite being short-lived and somewhat elusive, the Flatlanders had a profound impact on a host of country artists that chose to shun the expectations of Nashville and focus on the music's rich musical tradition. The Flatlanders--composed of future stars Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and Joe Ely-- were a supergroup before the fact, and produced modern country standards such as "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown" and "Dallas." Their mythic status has made them something of an alt-country equivalent of the Velvet Underground, and like the VU, the Flatlanders would reunite, to the delight of their cult following, decades after making their initial impact.

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