One of the most popular and best-loved in the celebrated history of great Texan musicians and singers, Jimmie Dale Gilmore has bridged the gap between country, folk, blues and rock music with philosophical songwriting and a warm, easy vocal style.
Born in Amarillo, he was raised in Lubbock, growing up with the music of Hank Williams all around him and strongly influenced by his father, who played guitar in a country band. When he was 12 he met his great friend and long-term music collaborator Butch Hancock and it was another Lubbock country star Terry Allen who inspired Gilmore to start writing his own songs, launching his songwriting career with 'Treat Me Like a Saturday Night'. Townes Van Zandt was another big inspiration as he blended old-time country styles with folk music and then started working around the Lubbock clubs with Joe Ely. In 1972 Gilmore, Ely and Hancock formed the occasional band The Flatlanders, at which point Gilmore wrote one of his most popular songs, 'Dallas'. After Ely had created interest by recording several of his songs, Gilmore released his own debut album 'Fair & Square' on Ely's HighTone label in 1988 and he was on his way to success.
Releasing 'After Awhile' on Elektra in 1991, he began to establish his reputation as one of the most visionary and modern-sounding of the contemporary country fraternity, gaining further credence when T-Bone Burnett produced his 1996 album 'Braver Newer World' and reformed The Flatlanders with Hancock and Ely for a track in the movie 'The Horse Whisperer' and started touring with them again. He also did some acting, appearing in 'The Thing Called Love' (1993) and 'The Big Lebowski' (1998). In 2005 he returned to classic country and honky tonk music with the 'Come On Back' album, while his songs have been regularly covered along the way by artists as varied as Nanci Griffith, Laurie Lewis and M. Ward.
In 2018 he released his first new music in over five years, 'Downey to Lubbock' with The Blasters' Dave Alvin.
