12 Jan Opera House: Jimmie Dale Gilmore Live!
JImmie Dale Gilmore
“The first time I heard Jimmie Dale Gilmore, I knew I was listening to a very special person. It’s not just the voice. It’s not just the performance. There is something extra, an uncommon presence. He is a storyteller extraordinare, with rare insight into the minds and workings of others. Songs he has written himself, songs composed by others, traditional pieces: Gilmore is always able to select something that suits his distinctive vocals. Arrangements, at times sparse and bare, at times engulfing, allow the stories to enfold, each thing in its proper place,” raved Jamie O’Brian of Rambles, a cultural arts magazine.
Moving from strength to strength, following a memorable concert by Elephant Revival (and the Shook twins) the first week in January, the historic Sheridan Opera House continues in the New Year with a series of winter concerts that include The Grascals, Sunday, January 19, a six-piece bluegrass band hailing from Nashville, Tennessee founded in 2004. The band has gained notoriety by playing on the Grand Ole Opry and in bluegrass festivals around the country. Telluride regulars MarchFourth Marching Band (M4 to its fans) is a kaleidoscope of musical and visual energy that inspires booty-shaking. That concert, produced by the Sheridan Arts Foundation and the Telluride Ski Resort, takes place Saturday, March 25, at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village.
Just before those two big events, the Sheridan Arts Foundation presents Jimmie Dale Gilmore live. The singer-songwriter is one of the leading members of the Lubbock mafia, a group of like-minded musicians and artists from West Texas who garnered worldwide acclaim.
Jimmie Dale Gilmore is live in concert at the Sheridan Opera House on Friday, January 17, 2014. Tickets for this evening of country music are $30 general admission and $35 reserved seats in the balcony (plus a ticketing fee). Showtime is 8 p.m.; doors, 7:30 p.m.
Born in Amarillo and raised in Lubbock, Gilmore was profoundly influenced by his father, Brian, a guitarist who performed the music of Hank Williams and Johnny Cash at dances and picnics and named his son after Jimmie Rodgers.
Gilmore’s website tells his story this way:
He was a poor man who listened to the radio at all hours and played guitar—specifically a blue, solid-body Fender electric guitar, perhaps the first in west Texas—at dances and picnics. The elder Gilmore worshipped singers, including Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, and named his son for the Singing Brakeman, Jimmie Rodgers. As a tribute to his father, Jimmie Dale Gilmore has recorded 13 of Brian Gilmore’s favorite songs. The result is Come On Back on Rounder Records.
The songs on the new album have always been at the root of Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s ever-evolving musical sensibility. He explains, “I never fell into any of the categories…I just love what I love and I’ve never discarded anything I loved in favor of something new. I sure didn’t toss out my Lefty Frizzell records when I discovered the Beatles.”
“The thing to understand about these songs is that they were monster hits in Lubbock. I know them so well, it was real easy for me to forget that most people have never heard these songs before: To me, Lefty Frizzell is both bigger and better than Sinatra. I’d say to Joe [Ely, the record’s producer], ‘Oh, we can’t do “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes,” that song’s been overdone,’ and Joe would set me straight, flat out, he’d say, ‘Nobody knows Slim Willett and sure nobody knows that song.’ So we’d record it.”
Continue reading about Jimmie Dale here…
For a preview of Jimmie Dale in concert, watch this video of the performer singing his hit tune, “Not Just a Wave, Not the Water.”
Tickets and additional event information are available at sheridanoperahouse.com or 970.728.6363 x5.
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