WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.200 OK, I want to start today by putting you in a 00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:06.320 very specific headspace. It's 1998. Right. You're 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:08.519 sitting in a movie theater or, you know, maybe 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:10.759 you're watching a VHS rental a year later and 00:00:10.759 --> 00:00:13.660 you're watching the Coen Brothers cult classic, 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:16.839 The Big Lebowski. A cultural touchstone. For 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:18.820 sure. Absolutely. So picture the bowling alley 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:20.480 scene. You know the one I'm talking about. Oh, 00:00:20.519 --> 00:00:23.089 yeah. You've got. John Goodman's character, Walter 00:00:23.089 --> 00:00:28.230 Sobchak, this volatile, shouting Vietnam vet 00:00:28.230 --> 00:00:30.730 who treats league bowling like it's life and 00:00:30.730 --> 00:00:32.590 death. He's terrified. And he gets into this 00:00:32.590 --> 00:00:34.810 argument over a foul. Over the line. Exactly. 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:37.909 He's screaming about rules and he literally pulls 00:00:37.909 --> 00:00:41.469 a handgun out of his bowling bag and pointed 00:00:41.469 --> 00:00:43.689 at the guy on the other team. The guy he's threatening 00:00:43.689 --> 00:00:46.530 is named Smokey. Market zero Smokey. Right. And 00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:50.469 Smokey is just this, this. A terrified, fragile 00:00:50.469 --> 00:00:53.530 pacifist with a gray ponytail just trembling 00:00:53.530 --> 00:00:55.869 in the face of this absolute maniac. That's just 00:00:55.869 --> 00:00:58.350 hilarious. Chaotic scene. It is. But here is 00:00:58.350 --> 00:01:00.490 the reveal that always, always does people's 00:01:00.490 --> 00:01:03.689 minds. That fragile pacifist, the guy playing 00:01:03.689 --> 00:01:06.329 Smokey. He wasn't just some character actor they 00:01:06.329 --> 00:01:09.579 picked out of a lineup. No. That was Jimmy Dale 00:01:09.579 --> 00:01:12.219 Gilmore, a legitimate, honest -to -God Texas 00:01:12.219 --> 00:01:15.400 country music legend. A man whose voice has been 00:01:15.400 --> 00:01:18.099 described as, and I love this quote, a cross 00:01:18.099 --> 00:01:20.859 between a coyote and a choir boy. That is maybe 00:01:20.859 --> 00:01:22.939 the most accurate description I have ever heard. 00:01:23.040 --> 00:01:25.659 And what's funny is that the character of Smokey, 00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:29.019 you know, the gentle, slightly confused pacifist, 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:31.760 it isn't actually that far removed from the real 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.239 man. And that is exactly what we are unpacking 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:36.519 today. We are doing a deep dive into the life, 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:39.510 the music. the weirdly winding path of Jimmy 00:01:39.510 --> 00:01:41.469 Dale Gilmore. Right. And I have to say, looking 00:01:41.469 --> 00:01:43.370 at the research you pulled together, this is 00:01:43.370 --> 00:01:45.989 not your standard musician gets famous, buys 00:01:45.989 --> 00:01:48.609 a mansion, retires story. No, not even close. 00:01:48.689 --> 00:01:51.609 It is a story about geography, about these incredible 00:01:51.609 --> 00:01:54.310 historical coincidences, and honestly, about 00:01:54.310 --> 00:01:56.209 the courage to just walk away from everything, 00:01:56.370 --> 00:01:58.909 to sit in a room and meditate for 10 years. It's 00:01:58.909 --> 00:02:02.099 wild. Our mission today is to figure out how 00:02:02.099 --> 00:02:04.379 a kid from the Texas panhandle helped invent 00:02:04.379 --> 00:02:07.379 a genre called progressive country, why he vanished 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:09.879 into a metaphysical ashram right when he should 00:02:09.879 --> 00:02:12.000 have been getting famous, and how he ended up 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:14.120 as this sort of zen master of American music. 00:02:14.259 --> 00:02:17.159 And, of course, a bowling icon. Can't forget 00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:20.159 the bowling. Yeah. So let's start at the roots. 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:23.500 To understand Jimmy Dale Gilmore, I feel like 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.000 you have to understand... the dirt he was standing 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:28.419 on the geography is absolutely essential here 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:32.500 jimmy was born on may 6 1945 in amarillo but 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:34.919 he was really raised in lubbock texas now for 00:02:34.919 --> 00:02:36.479 listeners who haven't had the pleasure of driving 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:38.900 through the texas panhandle we really need to 00:02:38.900 --> 00:02:41.719 paint this picture because it is distinct it 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:44.539 is lubbock is flat i mean aggressively flat it 00:02:44.539 --> 00:02:46.919 is incredibly windy it is dusty and back in the 00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:49.860 1950s it was technically dry so no alcohol sold 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:51.960 legally it was a very conservative religious 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:55.580 isolated place it sounds Well, a little bleak, 00:02:55.580 --> 00:02:58.539 to be honest. It can be. But there is this theory 00:02:58.539 --> 00:03:01.000 in music history that isolation breeds creativity, 00:03:01.259 --> 00:03:04.439 and specifically that the wind in Lubbock affects 00:03:04.439 --> 00:03:07.280 the way people sing. Yeah, it creates this high 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:09.219 lonesome sound. You have to sing through the 00:03:09.219 --> 00:03:12.120 wind to be heard, you know. Jimmy grew up in 00:03:12.120 --> 00:03:14.400 that environment. And he had the musical foundation 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.599 right inside the house, didn't he? He did. His 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:19.039 father played guitar in a country band. But we 00:03:19.039 --> 00:03:22.000 need to be specific here. This wasn't the polished 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.969 rhinestone. Nashville sound that became famous 00:03:24.969 --> 00:03:28.289 on TV later. This was honky -tonk. Okay, let's 00:03:28.289 --> 00:03:31.169 pause on that term, honky -tonk. We hear it a 00:03:31.169 --> 00:03:33.770 lot, but what does it actually mean in a technical 00:03:33.770 --> 00:03:37.030 sense? Great question. So before this era, country 00:03:37.030 --> 00:03:39.590 music was often called hillbilly music or western 00:03:39.590 --> 00:03:42.430 swing. Honky -tonk is the music of the bar room. 00:03:42.590 --> 00:03:45.430 It emerged in the post -war era. It's characterized 00:03:45.430 --> 00:03:48.050 by a heavy beat so people can dance to it and 00:03:48.050 --> 00:03:50.569 lyrics that are very raw. We're talking heartbreak, 00:03:50.689 --> 00:03:54.599 drinking, infidelity. hard life right the instrumentation 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:56.780 usually features a fiddle and a steel guitar 00:03:56.780 --> 00:03:58.919 designed to cut through the noise of a crowded 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:02.879 rowdy bar think hank williams that is the dna 00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:05.919 jimmie dale gilmore was born into so he's got 00:04:05.919 --> 00:04:08.060 hank williams on one shoulder he's got the west 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:11.000 texas wind on the other but then you flagged 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.800 this specific date in the research october 15 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:18.170 1955 you called this his big bang moment This 00:04:18.170 --> 00:04:20.189 is one of those historical coincidences that 00:04:20.189 --> 00:04:21.769 feels like it was written for a movie script. 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:25.290 Jimmy is 10 years old. He goes to the Fair Park 00:04:25.290 --> 00:04:29.009 Coliseum in Lubbock for a concert. And the lineup 00:04:29.009 --> 00:04:31.490 for this single show is just, it's absolutely 00:04:31.490 --> 00:04:34.230 insane. Lay it on us. Who was there? Okay, so 00:04:34.230 --> 00:04:37.610 opening the show is a young local kid from Lubbock 00:04:37.610 --> 00:04:39.990 named Buddy Holly. Okay, legend. Right there. 00:04:40.129 --> 00:04:42.490 Then you have a guy named Johnny Cash. The man 00:04:42.490 --> 00:04:44.730 in black himself. In the headliner. Don't say 00:04:44.730 --> 00:04:48.079 it. Elvis Presley. Stop it. All three. In Lubbock, 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:51.560 in 1955. All on three, on the same stage. And 00:04:51.560 --> 00:04:53.480 you have to imagine what this does to a 10 -year 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:55.839 -old boy's brain. Oh, my God. You have the raw 00:04:55.839 --> 00:04:58.399 storytelling power of Johnny Cash. You have the 00:04:58.399 --> 00:05:01.500 sex appeal and R &B rhythm of Elvis. And then 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:03.680 you have Buddy Holly, who is effectively taking 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:05.800 country music and just speeding it up to invent 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.600 rock and roll. Talk about being at the crossroads. 00:05:09.019 --> 00:05:11.839 Exactly. Jimmy was standing at the convergence 00:05:11.839 --> 00:05:14.379 of American music before he even hit puberty. 00:05:14.779 --> 00:05:17.920 And that night... basically rewired his brain. 00:05:18.139 --> 00:05:20.839 He realized music didn't have to be just one 00:05:20.839 --> 00:05:23.759 thing. It could be all of it. That explains so 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:26.019 much about his later style. Because when you 00:05:26.019 --> 00:05:28.420 listen to Gilmore, he doesn't fit neatly into 00:05:28.420 --> 00:05:30.519 the country box. He's not just singing about 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.860 trucks. Right. And as he moved into the 1960s, 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:36.379 that palette just kept expanding. He didn't stop 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:38.899 at Elvis. He started absorbing the British invasion. 00:05:40.009 --> 00:05:42.689 The Beatles, specifically. And he got really 00:05:42.689 --> 00:05:45.670 into Bob Dylan and the whole folk and blues revival. 00:05:45.730 --> 00:05:47.790 So he starts mixing it all up. He started mixing 00:05:47.790 --> 00:05:50.329 that high, lonesome West Texas sound with the 00:05:50.329 --> 00:05:53.129 intellectual curiosity of the folk movement. 00:05:53.250 --> 00:05:55.610 Which brings us to the 1970s. And this is where 00:05:55.610 --> 00:05:58.589 the legend really begins. He teams up with two 00:05:58.589 --> 00:06:00.790 other guys who are now considered titans of Texas 00:06:00.790 --> 00:06:04.730 music. Joe Ely and Butch Hancock. The Holy Trinity 00:06:04.730 --> 00:06:06.670 of Lummock, as some people call them. And they 00:06:06.670 --> 00:06:08.750 form a band with one of the best names in history. 00:06:09.180 --> 00:06:11.540 The Flatlanders. It's the perfect name. It just 00:06:11.540 --> 00:06:14.259 owns their geography. But here is the part that 00:06:14.259 --> 00:06:17.160 confuses me. I look at music history books now, 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:20.800 and the Flatlanders are cited as this super influential 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:25.139 group. But in 1972, they were kind of a disaster, 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.199 right? Commercially. An absolute disaster. They 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:29.360 went to Nashville to record, thinking they had 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:31.660 something special, and Nashville hated them. 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:34.500 Why? I mean, if they were so talented, why did 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:36.980 Nashville reject them? Because they were weird. 00:06:37.180 --> 00:06:38.879 They were doing something that didn't exist yet. 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:40.759 They were playing country music, but the lyrics 00:06:40.759 --> 00:06:44.300 were poetic and strange, very Dylan -esque. And 00:06:44.300 --> 00:06:47.000 this is a key detail. They used a musical saw. 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:49.819 A musical saw, like a literal carpentry saw that 00:06:49.819 --> 00:06:52.139 you play with a bow. Yes. Steve Wesson, their 00:06:52.139 --> 00:06:54.560 bandmate, played the musical saw. It makes this 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.300 eerie, ghostly, high -pitched sound, almost like 00:06:57.300 --> 00:07:00.129 a theremin in a sci -fi movie. Wow. So imagine 00:07:00.129 --> 00:07:03.189 walking into a polished Nashville studio in 1972 00:07:03.189 --> 00:07:05.410 where everyone is trying to make smooth radio 00:07:05.410 --> 00:07:07.629 hits and these long -haired Texans walk in with 00:07:07.629 --> 00:07:10.550 a carpentry saw and songs about the cosmos. Okay, 00:07:10.589 --> 00:07:12.720 I get to see the executives just sweating. It 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:14.899 was too much. The record label barely released 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:17.079 it. They put it out on eight -track tape with 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:19.660 almost zero distribution and then just buried 00:07:19.660 --> 00:07:22.319 it. The band broke up shortly after. And that 00:07:22.319 --> 00:07:24.459 was it. Everyone went their separate ways. It 00:07:24.459 --> 00:07:26.720 was, by all accounts, a failure. But we're talking 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:29.480 about them now. Because of the slow burn. Over 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:32.439 the next nearly 20 years, bootleg tapes of that 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:34.879 session started circulating among musicians. 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:38.079 Songwriters would hear it and go, wait, what 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:42.060 is this? It became a secret handshake. Finally, 00:07:42.100 --> 00:07:45.680 in 1990, nearly two decades later, Rounder Records 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.139 reissued the album. And they gave it that incredible 00:07:48.139 --> 00:07:50.759 title. More a legend than a band. That is such 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.660 a flex. I love it. It really is. And by 1990, 00:07:53.959 --> 00:07:56.279 the world had finally caught up. We had Alternative 00:07:56.279 --> 00:07:58.660 Country and Americana by then. People realized 00:07:58.660 --> 00:08:01.240 the Flatlanders had basically invented that sound 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:03.819 20 years too early. It's the classic ahead of 00:08:03.819 --> 00:08:06.519 their time story. So the Flatlanders break up 00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:09.480 in the 70s. Joe Ely goes on to have a rocking 00:08:09.480 --> 00:08:11.769 solo career. He tours with The Clash, actually. 00:08:11.889 --> 00:08:14.209 Right. Bush Hancock keeps running. But Jimmy 00:08:14.209 --> 00:08:18.990 Dale Gilmore? He takes a left turn. A hard left 00:08:18.990 --> 00:08:21.910 turn. This is the metaphysical detour. And I 00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:23.930 think this is what makes Jimmy truly unique. 00:08:24.529 --> 00:08:27.170 Most people, after a band fails, they either 00:08:27.170 --> 00:08:29.850 quit music to sell insurance or they hustle harder. 00:08:30.069 --> 00:08:32.730 The grind. They move to Nashville. They get a 00:08:32.730 --> 00:08:35.330 job waiting tables. They write songs every day. 00:08:35.409 --> 00:08:38.879 The standard playbook. But not Jimmy. Jimmy Gilmore 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:42.389 didn't grind. He went to Denver. And he moved 00:08:42.389 --> 00:08:46.750 into an ashram. An ashram in Denver. Yes. He 00:08:46.750 --> 00:08:49.370 became a follower of Prem Rawat, who was this 00:08:49.370 --> 00:08:52.490 teenage Indian guru, also known as Maharaji. 00:08:52.629 --> 00:08:55.090 And we aren't talking about a weekend yoga retreat. 00:08:55.269 --> 00:08:57.710 Jimmy spent most of the 1970s living in this 00:08:57.710 --> 00:08:59.549 community, studying metaphysics and meditation. 00:09:00.029 --> 00:09:01.929 Okay. I need to understand the connection here. 00:09:02.129 --> 00:09:05.090 How do you go from honky -tonk, which is beer, 00:09:05.269 --> 00:09:09.029 trucks, cheating, and dusty bars, to Indian metaphysics? 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:11.769 They seem like polar opposites. Are they, though? 00:09:11.850 --> 00:09:14.070 That's the question. Tell me more. How do you 00:09:14.070 --> 00:09:15.710 connect those dots? Think about the very best 00:09:15.710 --> 00:09:17.629 country songs. What are they about? They are 00:09:17.629 --> 00:09:19.769 about suffering. They are about the human condition. 00:09:20.009 --> 00:09:22.570 Why did she leave me? Why is life so hard? I'm 00:09:22.570 --> 00:09:25.889 so lonesome I could cry. Metaphysics asks the 00:09:25.889 --> 00:09:28.169 exact same questions, just with bigger vocabulary. 00:09:28.490 --> 00:09:31.690 It asks, what is the nature of suffering? Is 00:09:31.690 --> 00:09:34.629 the loneliness real? What is reality? That is 00:09:34.629 --> 00:09:37.409 fascinating. So he was basically taking the my 00:09:37.409 --> 00:09:41.409 dog died country trope and elevating it to does 00:09:41.409 --> 00:09:44.309 the dog even exist? Laughs, essentially. And 00:09:44.309 --> 00:09:46.710 this is what defines progressive country or the 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:49.009 cosmic cowboy scene that was bubbling up in Austin. 00:09:49.210 --> 00:09:51.610 It's this collision of the redneck and the hippie. 00:09:51.610 --> 00:09:53.929 Right. It's guys who wear cowboy boots but read 00:09:53.929 --> 00:09:56.889 Eastern philosophy. Jimmy didn't see a contradiction. 00:09:57.149 --> 00:09:59.169 He realized that the high lonesome sound was 00:09:59.169 --> 00:10:01.470 actually a spiritual sound. It was searching 00:10:01.470 --> 00:10:04.950 for something. But for his career. Surely this 00:10:04.950 --> 00:10:06.870 was suicide. He vanished for a decade. In the 00:10:06.870 --> 00:10:08.990 short term, yes, he was a ghost in the industry. 00:10:09.149 --> 00:10:11.049 But this is the key insight for our listeners. 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.639 Sometimes stepping away creates the mystique 00:10:14.639 --> 00:10:17.080 that makes you a legend. When he finally came 00:10:17.080 --> 00:10:19.659 back to Austin in the 1980s, he wasn't just another 00:10:19.659 --> 00:10:21.960 guy looking for a gig. He was different. He was 00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:24.559 the sage. He had this weight to him. He had lived 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:27.120 a different kind of life. He brought the metaphysics 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:29.639 back to the music. Exactly. So let's talk about 00:10:29.639 --> 00:10:32.539 the return. It's the 1980s. He decides he's ready. 00:10:32.659 --> 00:10:35.679 He moves to Austin, which is really booming as 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:38.379 a music hub by then. Right. And he launches his 00:10:38.379 --> 00:10:41.320 solo career properly. He releases his first solo 00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:45.139 album, Fair and Square, in 1988. Then comes... 00:10:45.450 --> 00:10:48.269 After a while in 1991. And the critics absolutely 00:10:48.269 --> 00:10:50.070 loved it. They went nuts. He starts getting Grammy 00:10:50.070 --> 00:10:52.009 nominations. And if you look at the categories, 00:10:52.169 --> 00:10:53.990 it tells you everything about his versatility. 00:10:54.269 --> 00:10:57.529 Okay. In 1993, he was nominated for Best Contemporary 00:10:57.529 --> 00:10:59.669 Folk Album for Spitting Around the Sun. Contemporary 00:10:59.669 --> 00:11:02.549 Folk. Got it. Then in 1996, another nomination 00:11:02.549 --> 00:11:04.909 for Best Contemporary Folk Album for Braver, 00:11:04.909 --> 00:11:08.009 Newer World. So consistent. But then later in 00:11:08.009 --> 00:11:10.750 2005, he gets nominated for Best Traditional 00:11:10.750 --> 00:11:13.769 Folk Album for Come On Back. Ah, so he can do 00:11:13.769 --> 00:11:16.809 the new stuff. the old stuff precisely that album 00:11:16.809 --> 00:11:19.389 come on back was a tribute project he recorded 00:11:19.389 --> 00:11:21.950 songs his father loved yeah so he went from the 00:11:21.950 --> 00:11:24.750 ashram back to the very roots we talked about 00:11:24.750 --> 00:11:26.850 in the beginning i want to drill down on his 00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:29.750 voice for a second because if you've never heard 00:11:29.750 --> 00:11:32.269 jimmy deal gilmore it's hard to explain it's 00:11:32.269 --> 00:11:36.230 not No, it is not smooth. It's incredibly distinctive. 00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:40.330 It's nasal and it has this heavy vibrato, that 00:11:40.330 --> 00:11:42.529 wavering sound. Some people call it a warble. 00:11:42.889 --> 00:11:46.169 It's not pretty in the conventional pop sense. 00:11:46.409 --> 00:11:49.029 It's haunting. It sounds ancient. It sounds like 00:11:49.029 --> 00:11:51.730 the wind in Lubbock. And I have to imagine that 00:11:51.730 --> 00:11:55.149 voice and that face is what drew in the filmmakers. 00:11:55.750 --> 00:11:59.299 100%. Directors love authenticity. and jimmy 00:11:59.299 --> 00:12:02.340 just radiates it you can't act that kind of weariness 00:12:02.340 --> 00:12:04.399 and peace which brings us right back to the big 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:06.820 lebowski the cohen brothers needed someone to 00:12:06.820 --> 00:12:09.639 play smoky The character is a pacifist, but he's 00:12:09.639 --> 00:12:11.820 in a bowling league, which is a very working 00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:14.779 class structured environment. Casting Jimmy was 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:18.120 genius because Jimmy is that paradox. He's the 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:20.940 country boy who went to the ashram. He doesn't 00:12:20.940 --> 00:12:23.159 have to act like a guy who has seen some things 00:12:23.159 --> 00:12:26.279 and decided to be peaceful. He is that guy. Over 00:12:26.279 --> 00:12:28.519 the line. It's perfect. And that wasn't his only 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:30.379 role. He actually played himself in a movie, 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:34.200 right? He did. In 1993, he was in Peter Bogdanovich's 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:36.980 film The Thing Called Love. It was a story about 00:12:36.980 --> 00:12:38.879 young songwriters trying to make it in Nashville. 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:41.179 Oh, with River Phoenix. That's the one. And it 00:12:41.179 --> 00:12:43.100 makes sense if you're making a movie about the 00:12:43.100 --> 00:12:45.500 struggle of songwriters to be authentic. Jimmy 00:12:45.500 --> 00:12:48.980 is the ultimate example of the pure artist who 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:51.379 didn't sell out. And his music made it into films, 00:12:51.419 --> 00:12:54.570 too. Yes. His song Braver, Newer World was featured 00:12:54.570 --> 00:12:57.710 in the 1995 Noah Baumbach film Kicking and Screaming. 00:12:57.909 --> 00:13:01.250 And more recently, his cover of Mack the Knife, 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:04.149 which is from his album One Endless Night, ended 00:13:04.149 --> 00:13:06.789 up on the soundtrack of the 2009 film A Prophet. 00:13:07.009 --> 00:13:10.610 Mack the Knife. The Bobby Darin swing song. Yes, 00:13:10.649 --> 00:13:13.909 but Jimmy slows it way down. He makes it acoustic 00:13:13.909 --> 00:13:16.269 and creepy. It fits perfectly in a French crime 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:19.129 drama. Wow. It just shows that his voice transcends 00:13:19.129 --> 00:13:21.409 the country label. It works in a French prison 00:13:21.409 --> 00:13:23.929 movie just as well as a Texas honky -tonk. I 00:13:23.929 --> 00:13:26.190 also saw a note here about Willie Nelson. You 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:28.169 can't have a Texas deep dive without Willie. 00:13:28.389 --> 00:13:30.830 It's basically the law in Texas. Did their pads 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:34.009 cross? They certainly did, and for a very important 00:13:34.009 --> 00:13:38.600 cause. In 1994, Gilmore teamed up with Willie 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:42.279 Nelson to sing the song Crazy for the album Red 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:45.919 Hot Plus Country. Oh, that album. This was an 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:48.539 AIDS benefit album produced by the Red Hot organization. 00:13:49.159 --> 00:13:51.899 That's amazing. Yeah. And huge at the time because 00:13:51.899 --> 00:13:54.440 country music wasn't exactly known for being 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:56.500 at the forefront of AIDS activism in the early 00:13:56.500 --> 00:13:59.320 90s. No, it wasn't. And that's the progressive 00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:02.360 part of Jimmy again. He and Willie coming together 00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:04.799 for that showed that the Texas music scene was 00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:06.980 inclusive in a way that the mainstream industry 00:14:06.980 --> 00:14:09.639 wasn't always ready to be. It was a statement. 00:14:09.820 --> 00:14:11.879 And speaking of legacy and passing the torch, 00:14:12.059 --> 00:14:14.639 the musical gene didn't stop with Jimmy. No, 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:17.059 it didn't. We should mention his son, Colin Gilmore. 00:14:17.100 --> 00:14:19.419 He's also a fantastic singer -songwriter based 00:14:19.419 --> 00:14:21.779 in Austin. Oh, cool. He's got a bit of that Gilmore 00:14:21.779 --> 00:14:23.840 DNA in his voice, but he's doing his own thing, 00:14:23.879 --> 00:14:26.429 so the lineage is safe. So let's zoom out a bit. 00:14:26.450 --> 00:14:28.110 We've covered a lot of ground here. We went from 00:14:28.110 --> 00:14:30.289 that Coliseum in Lubbock watching Elvis and Buddy 00:14:30.289 --> 00:14:32.570 Holly. To the lost recordings and the musical 00:14:32.570 --> 00:14:34.970 saw of the Flatlander. To the silence of the 00:14:34.970 --> 00:14:38.110 ashram in Denver. And finally, to the Grammy 00:14:38.110 --> 00:14:40.389 nominations and the bowling alley in the Big 00:14:40.389 --> 00:14:42.929 Lebowski. When you step back and look at the 00:14:42.929 --> 00:14:46.149 whole map, what is the core lesson here? What 00:14:46.149 --> 00:14:48.490 defines Jimmy Dill Gilmore? For me, it's the 00:14:48.490 --> 00:14:51.470 redefinition of success. How so? Well, the music 00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:53.389 industry tells you that success is a straight 00:14:53.389 --> 00:14:55.990 line. You start, you get a hit, you get a bigger 00:14:55.990 --> 00:14:59.350 hit, you play stadiums. Jimmy proved that success 00:14:59.350 --> 00:15:01.950 is actually about identity. Right. He didn't 00:15:01.950 --> 00:15:04.250 fit in Nashville, so he didn't go. He needed 00:15:04.250 --> 00:15:06.730 spiritual answers, so he left the business entirely. 00:15:07.309 --> 00:15:11.029 He let his first band be a failure for 20 years 00:15:11.029 --> 00:15:13.129 before capitalizing on it. To lay the long game. 00:15:13.230 --> 00:15:15.830 The longest game. And because of that, he never 00:15:15.830 --> 00:15:18.950 became a parody of himself. He never became just 00:15:18.950 --> 00:15:22.649 another oldies act. He remained an artist. He 00:15:22.649 --> 00:15:25.230 represents that specific Texas idea that you 00:15:25.230 --> 00:15:27.750 can be a cosmic cowboy. You can love your roots, 00:15:27.850 --> 00:15:29.669 love the land, and still have your head in the 00:15:29.669 --> 00:15:32.340 stars asking big philosophical questions. I love 00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:34.879 that image, the cosmic cowboy. It's really the 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:36.620 only way to explain him. I want to leave our 00:15:36.620 --> 00:15:38.679 listeners with a final thought to mull over. 00:15:39.220 --> 00:15:41.899 Something that struck me while we were researching 00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:45.039 his lost decade. Let's hear it. We live in a 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:48.019 culture now, especially with social media, where 00:15:48.019 --> 00:15:51.039 if you aren't posting, you don't exist. If you 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.620 aren't optimizing your career every single day, 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:55.779 you feel like you're falling behind. The hustle 00:15:55.779 --> 00:15:58.539 culture. It's relentless. Exactly. But Jimmy 00:15:58.539 --> 00:16:01.750 Dale Gilmore stopped. He just stopped. And everyone 00:16:01.750 --> 00:16:03.509 probably told him he was crazy. You're throwing 00:16:03.509 --> 00:16:05.929 it all away. But looking back, that silence, 00:16:06.370 --> 00:16:09.309 that's where the magic accumulated. Yeah. If 00:16:09.309 --> 00:16:11.610 he hadn't gone to the ashram, he wouldn't be 00:16:11.610 --> 00:16:13.730 the Jimmy Dale Gilmore we know. He'd just be 00:16:13.730 --> 00:16:16.350 another country singer. That's a powerful takeaway. 00:16:16.610 --> 00:16:19.450 The pause isn't the end of the song. It's part 00:16:19.450 --> 00:16:22.690 of the rhythm. Precisely. So if you're feeling 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:25.049 stuck right now or if you feel like you've stepped 00:16:25.049 --> 00:16:28.250 off the path, maybe you're just in your ashram 00:16:28.250 --> 00:16:31.059 phase. And the best work your legend phase is 00:16:31.059 --> 00:16:32.840 waiting for you when you're ready to come back. 00:16:33.059 --> 00:16:35.799 I love that a lot. Thanks for joining us on this 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.379 deep dive into the flatlands and the cosmos with 00:16:38.379 --> 00:16:40.480 Jimmy Dale Gilmore. It's been a pleasure. See 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:40.940 you next time.