The Dance Hall Sound
They all speak the language, and its a lot of fun to listen, and even dance to. I love this CD, it's a great Austin-Mafia album of country oldies, and what I can add to the positive comments below is that the band is in on the mission to get that beer-and-sawdust sound of a country dance band on a hot summer night. I especially love the way Gilmore lets "Blue Yodel #9" sing itself. . . . "Weeeell, she walked into the joint with a 44 in each hand. . . . "
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Honor Thy Father and Mother
It would make a perfect gift for anyone that loves country music. This is a fantastic, classic, wonderful selection of songs rendered perfectly in a timeless manner. Living in Lubbock, I often had the same experience with Jimmie's father and actor Barry Corbin's father. They would tell me with great pride of their son's most recent show business adventures around the world.
Doing an album of his father's favorite songs brought the best of karma to this project. I'll take a Gambler's Oath you will love this CD.
Johnny HughesTexas Poker Wisdom.
Walking a Fine Line...Gilmore's Well Done Covers Album
He had sort of flown under my radar until I saw the recommendation for "Come On Back" in ND issue #61 (Jan. I admit that I bought this album soley because it made the No Depression magazine's Top Albums of 2005 list, despite the fact that I have a bunch of Jimmie Dale Gilmore's older albums. -Feb. 2006). What an apt title, as I've 'come on back' to Jimmie's rootsy and authentic honky-tonk country music that I loved listening to so much back in the early 1990's. Thanks No Depression! The playing is superb and Jimmie's singing is enthusiastic. I (and hopefully you) have read all of the prior reviews and many good points are made by all the reviewers. Just to clear up one question, the original version of "Train of Love" can be found on the great 1990 Rhino single disc compilation, "Johnny Cash: The Sun Years". "Train of Love" was released as Sun single #258 in November 1956. I'm not sure whether it charted but it apparently was partly the inspiration for the "Ride This Train" segment of Cash's early 1970's television show. Johnny Cash's is the version of the song I'm familiar with but Jimmie's faithful rendition definitely does it justice. Much has already been made of the issue of whether a covers album should contain faithful 'true to the original' versions of the songs or whether an artist should make the songs his/her own. Probably there will be no solving of that ongoing debate here, but to my ears, Gilmore has delivered one of the better covers records. A very good to great covers album, despite some occasional mis-steps, should pique a listener's curiosity so that one might perhaps search out the original songs and maybe incidentally discover the other work of the musicians who originally wrote and/or recorded the songs. Gilmore's "Come On Back" does just that, as I'm going to check out the original version of "I'm Movin' On" by that "great Canadian singer-songwriter", Hank Snow. Well done Jimmie!.
I miss the old JDG
But despite repeated listenings, this CD just didn't do it for me, and in fact, none of his last few CDs have satisfied me. I have all of Jimmie Dale's CDs and I love his unique voice. His two best CDs are "Fair & Square" and his self-titled CD. Those are real, old-fashioned honky tonk and remain among my favorites of all time. While this CD marks a return to real country (his latest albums weren't country in my book), the songs just left me flat. Having said that, I'm obviously in the minority with my opinion.
4 and 1/2 stars,
i dreamed that i lived in a world where toby keith, vince gill and garth brooks were anonymous individuals, perhaps working in construction, and that the most lauded and famous country music stars were fellas named "billy joe shaver," "buddy miller," and "jimmie dale gilmore. i had a dream last night. " what a great dream. and when i awoke i was sad, because i remembered how the world really was. i just wanted to go back to sleep and dream some more.
You can see a complete list of all Jimmie Dale Gilmore discography, or go back to the Jimmie Dale Gilmore tabs
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