Now Again

Joe Ely has performed with everyone from the clash to the Rolling Stones and is the man who took hard-edged Texan country to a rock audience in the late '70s; Jimmie Dale Gilmore has recorded a number of highly regarded solo albums, including 2000's best-selling One Endless Night; Butch Hancock is a highly noted singer/ songwriter whose songs have been covered by Emmylou Harris, as well as his friends Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Each of them have distinguished solo careers, of course, and their songs have cross-pollinated one another's albums for years. But their genesis as performers and writers came when they played together as The Flatlanders, and the pull- which the band continues to exert on both its alumni and its fans- remains strong today.

Now Again was produced by Ely, but the album's tracks were a true collaborative effort. Most of the songs were co-written by the trio, and most of them feature the rough-hewn vocal blend of all three men.

And then there are touchstones that the music on Now Again shares with the best of each songwriter's music: there is an abundance of clever wordplay; there is the freewheeling blend of folk, rock, country, and blues that has always informed their work; and there is the feeling of lazy intimacy, of old friends tossing music and words around like softballs. The songs can croon, swing, rollick, or cry, depending on the whim of the three tunesmiths!