I truly love this band, but I try to limit posting them around once a year. I try that with everyone, but it gets hard at times. The last time I posted them was back in February of this fading year, so I thought it was time for another. I respect them so much because of what they came up with. Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock were inventing a whole new kind of Texas country while nobody in Nashville was bothering to look. Their loss!
The song selections and the harmonies hooked me long ago. Their songs are simple and straight to the point, and really catchy. This song was written by Leslie York, and the York Brothers were the first to record it. It’s been covered by The Everly Brothers, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, and The Gibson Brothers. There are other songs by that name by Tex Ritter and a different one by CSN.
They were formed in 1972 by three singer-songwriters: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, and Butch Hancock. The band was born out of the music scene in Lubbock, Texas, where all three members grew up. They recorded their debut album in Nashville. Initially, the album was released only as an 8-track tape by Plantation Records, with the title “Jimmie Dale and the Flatlanders.” This limited release received little attention at the time, and the band members soon went their separate ways to pursue solo careers, but would reunite to release a total of 10 albums of studio and live.
This song was on the 2021 album Treasure of Love. All three members were songwriters, and all had unique voices that blended so well with each other. Treasure of Love was never intended to be an album, at least not at first. So when Joe Ely started gathering the trio in his home studio in Austin during the early and mid-2000s, it was not for some grand comeback. It was more like old friends swapping songs and capturing whatever happened to be good.
Long Time Gone
You cheated me and left me lonelyI tried to be your very ownThere’ll be a day you’ll want me onlyBut when I leave, I’ll be a long time goneBe a long time goneBe a long time goneYes, when I leave, I’ll be a long time goneYou’re gonna be sad, you’re gonna be weepin’You’re gonna be blue and all aloneYou’ll regret the day you seen me weepin’‘Cause when I leave, I’ll be a long time goneBe a long time goneBe a long time goneYes, when I leave, I’ll be a long time goneYou’ll see my face through tears and sorrowYou’ll miss the love you called your ownBaby, there’ll be no tomorrow‘Cause when I leave, I’ll be a long time goneBe a long time goneBe a long time goneYes, when I leave, I’ll be a long time gone
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Cool to see dudes years later get together to swap tunes and not necessarily do it to chase after a quick buck like so many do.
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Perfect combination of voices and talents as far as I’m concerned. Have the first CD, More A Legend…, but haven’t really looked too far into the later stuff. I must do that. Very good.
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What I liked…is that they don’t change their sound much. I heard this song randomly and I couldn’t believe it was from recently!
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Very cool! 😎
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Since Joe Ely died just a couple of weeks ago, this is a great choice as a tribute. I wanted to know who played dobro on this – it turns out to be Lloyd Maines, a charter member of the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame and father of Natalie Maines of the Chicks.
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You have been reading this blog probably long enough to see me become a fan of Ely…that really hurt when he passed. I wrote this post probably 3 weeks ago and meant to post it before…
Thank you for the information! I had no ideal about Maine’s dad.
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yes….so many from that time that era, that sound…I think I mentioned this before, I was lucky enough to see them at our folk fest along side Lyle Lovett, and Nanci Griffith….on the same stage at the same time. I think I knew the flatlanders maybe, but it was a great introduction…or re-introduction. and taught me a lesson, always visit those side stages you never know what you’ll hear….if I’m remember right, after listening to this group I wandered over the a stage that was lead my Devish, with a Hawaiian duo, and a local jazz pianist, and they jammed….the ultimate musical smorg!
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Wow…what a variety… that is checking every box. So cool that you got to see them live. I would have loved to. I didn’t hear them until around 2-3 years ago…great music.
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Has an almost Willie Nelson-ish sound. Must be something about growing up in Texas interior. The most interesting aspect of Ely is how Joe Strummer came to know him and he a fan. Talk about different musical paths!
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It was so sad about Ely. I was telling someone that I wrote this post 3 weeks ago…before he passed…that is why I didn’t mention it. Yea Ely got around to different styles completely…one of the many reasons I’m a fan of him.
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New to me Max
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They fit right in at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin and on Austin City Limits. Traditional country didn’t know what to do with them until Willie and Waylon came along and started that whole Redneck Hippie Cowboy Loving stuff. Lloyd was a studio musician back then and played with most of the greats. There were only a few good pedal steel players in Texas at the time, Manes and Tommy Morrell. Tommy played with Ronnie Dawson in a band called the Steel Rail at their club on Mockingbird Lane, called Aunt Emma’s. All these great musicians are now old and starting to pass on, and I don’t see anyone better to replace them. All this Red Dirt country music is about a guy, and his pickup truck, a couple of dogs in the back, drinking beer, and getting his little heart broken by some gal from Houston in a Mazda convertible. Seems like they are all named Cody, or some other old western name. Fort Worth and Dallas are overrun with these guys. Give me Lyle Lovett and George Strait, and I’m happy. I gave my Garth Brooks CDs the Dixie Chicks treatment and burned them in the Weber grill. I never got to hear them live; I was always planning to see their show and somehow missed it. My loss, I guess. Good stuff as always, Max.
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I never understood the appeal to Garth Brooks…to me that was when country started to go down to a bad bad place.
Yea I do wish I could have seen them Phil. Those old musicians had so many shows under their belt…in dives and whatnot…including the chicken wire…they were seasoned and could play anywhere and anything.
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Nowadays straight up down home Country just leaves me cold. Now something a little outside of the cheesy cotton-pickin’ banjo pickin’ old Country, something with a little more than ‘tears on my pillow-or pickup- or in my beer’ I can and will happily listen to.
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Yea…this is more of the real deal…I just really like these guys because they seem so authentic… hope your visits were good Obbverse!
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Thanks Max, yes the trips were pretty great, but home is nice to come home to. Hey, there’s a line for a Country song!?
The trip has given me fodder for a few posts, but man oh man, that lack of sleep throughout the Scottish sojourn left me a red-eyed drooling wretch.
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