The Wronglers with Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Terminology has distinct limitations in the world of traditional music. While useful for reference and classification, it is often imprecise, arbitrary, and overlapping, with jargon that changes continually over time. Consider, for example, this set of spirited and expertly-performed songs by The Wronglers and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Is it old-time country? Bluegrass? String-band music? Some of these songs are also prevalent in such other genres as western swing, proto-rockabilly, and folk revivalism. Some are rooted in African-American blues. And others date back – at least in terms of melody – to an indigenous British repertoire from many centuries past.
But whatever they are called – past, present, or future – these songs represent a classic American repertoire, a timeless cultural legacy. And that’s precisely why The Wronglers and Jimmie Dale Gilmore have aptly entitled this fine new album Heirloom Music. These songs are national treasures, a precious bequest to ensuing generations. They are performed here with a grace and proficient fluidity that may sound deceptively simple. But beneath such seemingly effortless delivery there is a deep core of reverence for tradition, not to mention an equally deep core of exuberant delight and pure fun.
The story of Heirloom Music begins in San Francisco, in 2005, when Warren Hellman (banjo and vocals), Nate Levine (guitar), Bill Martin (mandolin) and Krista Martin (fiddle) formed what became the nucleus of The Wronglers. “Individually,” Warren Hellman recalls, “the four of us had been taking lessons from a wonderful multi-instrumentalist named Jody Stecher. After awhile, Jody suggested that the best way for us to really learn and improve in old-time music and bluegrass was to move beyond playing alone to playing with other musicians. Jody brought the four of us together and we hit it off really well, both personally and musically.”
Hellman is also the founder of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, an annual event in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park which started out as a music-lover’s gift to his city. During its decade of existence it has emerged as one of the nation’s premier events for (terminology alert!) folk-rooted American music.
The name “The Wronglers” was born in 2006 when Dawn Holliday, the person responsible for booking Hardly Strictly, arranged for Warren and his fellow students to perform at that year’s festival. For this, their first ever show, they recruited Colleen Browne (Warren’s then Assistant) and Chris Hellman (Warren’s wife) on bass/vocals and vocals respectively, and Ron Thomason of Dry Branch Fire Squad offered his services as guitarist (Heidi Clare, formerly of “Reeltime Travelers”, joined on fiddle the following year).
Hellman decided to name the band The Wronglers because “my ‘day job’ is in private equity investment. At the time, I was doing some work with Levi Strauss, whose main competitor in the blue jean manufacturing business was Wrangler, so I thought it was a nice play on words. I had been away from music for thirty years,” Hellman continues, “concentrating on my other career, and so I was thrilled to come back to it in my seventies.” It was Hellman, too, who coined the band’s abstruse yet apropos slogan, “simple tunes played by complicated people.”
The same year Holliday booked The Wronglers’ debut she had also booked a return engagement by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, a perennial festival favorite. Gilmore’s music has always been characterized by both a deep respect for the traditional country sounds of his Texas upbringing, and for his profoundly personal statements. The latter includes such original songs as “Treat Me Like A Saturday Night” and “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown.” “Somebody once told me that my music strikes a strange balance between being abstract and down-to-earth,” Gilmore says. “I take that as a great compliment, because that really is my intent.”
Gilmore’s penchant for spiritual themes and cosmic considerations has led to descriptions of his lyrics as “West Texastentialism.” His heartfelt singing style, with its masterfully understated phrasing, is known in some circles as “sagebrush soul,” a genre that Gilmore is credited with creating. And, in addition to his long, distinguished solo career, with its three Grammy nominations, Gilmore is a longtime member of The Flatlanders. This beloved trio, which also features fellow Lubbock-ites Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, is also a festival favorite at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.
Gilmore and Hellman became acquainted at a party for Hardly Strictly performers, and a close friendship evolved. In 2010, The Wronglers played at the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s longtime stomping ground. “I heard The Wronglers play,” Gilmore says, “and I had already heard their first album. For a long time I’ve been wanting to record an album of early twentieth century, folk-rooted country music. I already did an album called Come On Back that focused on the mid-century country that I learned from my dad - songs by people like Lefty Frizzell. I’ve been wanting to go back further, to a time before country music got really commercialized, with artists such as Charlie Poole (“Leaving Home”), the Carter Family (“Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes”), Bill Monroe (“Uncle Pen”), Bob Wills (“Time Changes Everything”), and the early sound of the Delmore Brothers (“Brown’s Ferry Blues”). Songs that remind me of the styles of bluegrass artists whom I admired such as Flatt and Scruggs, and Jim and Jesse McReynolds. Old songs that I learned from the New Lost City Ramblers. Hobo songs like ‘Big Rock Candy Mountain.’ Old blues like ‘Deep Ellum.’ It just came to me one night when I was having dinner with Warren and The Wronglers. I asked them ‘Would you like to make an album with me?’ Their response was overwhelmingly positive, so here we are.”
“That idea; that impulse,” Gilmore continues, “arose in the context of a learning process. For the past 14 years, I had been teaching a summer songwriting class at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. In doing that I became aware that playing music is an act of sharing. I feel like I want to give these songs - in the same spirit though on a lesser scale as what Warren does by putting on Hardly Strictly.”
The six members of The Wronglers, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and guest guitarist Rob Gjersoe are all in fine form here on this fully realized set of American jewels. You are about to embark on a journey through a century of great traditional music classics. You are about to inherit the joy and grit that is Heirloom Music.
