Jimmie Dale Gilmore has been writing songs and playing music for more than half a century.  Born in Amarillo and raised in Lubbock, Gilmore makes music that springs from West Texas dusty high plains, blending elements of folk, rock, country, blues and bluegrass.   His recordings have earned three Grammy nominations in both Contemporary Folk and Traditional Folk and he was named Country Artist of the Year three years running by Rolling Stone Magazine.  Along with longtime compadres Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, Gilmore’s legendary band The Flatlanders has been credited as “Fathers of the Alt-Country” movement. Gilmore’s most recent collaborations have been with former Blaster and Grammy winner, Dave Alvin. In 2024, they released their second album, TexiCali, a followup to their debut record Downey to Lubbock.

 

Gilmore’s musical roots began in Tulia, a small West Texas town where his father played lead guitar in a country band. When Gilmore was in grade school the family moved to Lubbock, known for being the starting point for a surprising number of musicians (including Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, and Gilmore’s long-time friends Butch Hancock, Terry Allen and Joe Ely). Gilmore met Hancock when they were 12, and they have been friends and frequent musical collaborators ever since.

 

Gilmore later met Allen, who he says inspired him to write his own songs. His friend Joe Ely introduced him to the music of Townes Van Zandt, and a few years later Gilmore, Ely and Hancock formed The Flatlanders. The group recorded its first album in Nashville in 1972. Their unique sound, too old fashioned for some and too other-worldly for others, found it hard to gain traction in the formulaic Nashville of the time. The Flatlanders debut album was released only on 8-track and was never really promoted. Ten years later it was released in Europe on Demon/Charly Records,  and twenty years later, titled “More a Legend than a Band,” on Rounder Records.  After the original Flatlander album non-release in 1972, the band went their separate ways.

 

Gilmore joined an ashram in New Orleans for a short while then moved to Denver to continue studying Eastern philosophy, worked odd jobs (including janitor in a synagogue), and did not record another album for 16 years. In 1980, Gilmore returned to Austin, where he began playing regular gigs in local clubs. In 1988, Hi-Tone Records released his debut solo album, Fair and Square, produced by Joe Ely, followed by his 1989 self-titled album, produced by Lloyd Maines. Gilmore was soon signed to Elektra Nonesuch, which released After Awhile, produced by Stephen Bruton, in 1991 as part of the label’s American Explorer series. Once again, Nashville showed little interest in Gilmore’s brand of country music, but he earned the praise of many critics. He recorded two more Grammy-nominated Elektra albums, Spinning Around the Sun, produced by Emory Gordy, and Braver Newer World, produced by T-Bone Burnett.

 

Gilmore has released two solo albums on the Rounder label, One Endless Night, produced by Buddy Miller, and another grammy-nominated album Come on Back, produced by Joe Ely and honoring the memory of Jimmie’s father, Brian Gilmore. In 2011, Gilmore recorded Heirloom Music, an album of “old-timey” songs in collaboration with the founder of San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Warren Hellman. 

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The Flatlanders continued their close friendship and collaboration, occasionally touring and writing together. They reunited in 2002 for their second album, Now Again, and have released four albums since then, including their 2021 release, Treasure of Love. The remastered original 1972 Flatlanders album was reissued on Sun Records in late 2024. 

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In 2017, on the verge of semi-retirement, Gilmore played a series of acoustic duo shows with Dave Alvin. In spite of their contrasting approaches and styles, they recognized a common passion for traditional and alternative blues, country, roots rock and singer-songwriter hard-to-classify, Americana music. They recorded their first album together, Downey to Lubbock, in 2018. In 2024, they released their second collaboration, TexiCali, featuring the Guilty Ones. They continue to tour extensively both as a duo and with the Guilty Ones.

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Gilmore has randomly appeared in movies, including Parkland, The Thing Called Love and played the pacifist bowler Smokey in the Big Lebowski. One of his favorite side gigs is teaching songwriting workshops and he has taught an Omega songwriting workshop in Rhinebeck, New York, annually since 1996.

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In 2025 Jimmie turns 80, and continues to share his passion for music with the world. He’s still here, whether on the road, on the stage, teaching songwriting, or hanging out in his favorite border town, doing what he loves: writing, playing and singing.