JIMMIE, JOE, BUTCH & DAVE

Tony Peyser
Mirror contributing writer

   They Came. They Didn’t Conquer. They Had A Saw. (They really did have someone playing the saw on their 1970 debut. I’ve often thought the saw was the working man’s theremin, but I digress.) One More Road by The Flatlanders is a critics’ favorite that had heart, grit and Lone Star soul. But the big-haired Nashville world back then wasn’t ready for anything at all different and the album went nowhere.
   The old pals from Lubbock rode off to separate solo careers. Jimmie Dale Gilmore (who had a small, goofy part in the “The Big Lebowski” as a rules-obsessed bowler) has a crooner’s voice and mystic’s spirit. Butch Hancock is what Dylan might have sounded like if he hailed from Texas instead of Minnesota. And Joe Ely, no songwriting slouch, is one of the best live performers in any genre who’s toured and recorded with The Clash and Bruce Springsteen. After cutting “South Wind Of Summer” for “The Horse Whisperer” soundtrack in 1998, it was clear The Flatlanders still had a spark and Now Again proves it.
   “I Thought The Wreck Was Over” is a comical look at how things often get worse right when you think they should be getting better. Another winner has this stunning opening line: “Yesterday was judgment day/how’d you do?” It’s a haunting, thoughtful song and may make you do some re-examining of your own life. “Down In The Light Of The Melon Moon” at times sounds like a lost Grateful Dead tune, the accordion in the juicy “Julia” gives the song a spicy Tex-Mex flavor and the rowdy “Pay The Alligator” is ready for its jukebox close-up.
   Last summer, I saw The Flatlanders at the House Of Blues. Some people didn’t know the band’s back story and came simply because they didn’t have anything else to do that night. By the end of the show, they were dumbfounded. It was like that moment in “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid” when the title characters realize they’re being pursued by relentless trackers and Butch asks, “Who are those guys?” They’re The Flatlanders and their second album (a mere 32 years after their first) reveals these old amigos have a new career to look forward to.
   Another major release this week is Dave Alvin’s Out In California. If you’re new to the ex-Blaster and now long-established singer-songwriter, you’ll be fairly floored. If you have his other live release, Interstate City, you’ll be equally impressed. Hearing Alvin live is like watching Mark McGwire effortlessly smack one out to deep center; it’s a thing of beauty. Acoustic and electric, it all works on all cylinders. The title track and “Haley’s Comet” are performed with plenty of power to burn. “Blue Boulevard” is made all the more memorable by the two-minute intro where Alvin recalls his older and now-deceased cousin, Donna. He and his brother worshipped her as kids for her love of R&B and how she’d let them sit in the back seat of her ’48 Ford as she cruised along the main drags on the South East side of L.A. With this release, Alvin and his back-up band, The Guilty Men, still don’t have a damn thing to feel guilty about.
   Miles Of Music has Now Again for $14 and Out In California for $16.
   *On May 22, Moe Jones are at The Cat Club and on May 28, Tom Freund’s at The Temple Bar. Finally, on May 25, Waking Hours —- a U.S. band with a fondness for U.K. pop —- will play The Key Club.
   The Goofy Band Name Of The Week is … Elf Power.