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By NEIL STRAUSS
Few people heard the recording "Jimmie Dale and the Flatlanders" when it was originally released in 1973, partly because it was available only on eight-track tape. Since then the three singer-songwriter/guitarists in the band – Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock – have achieved varying degrees of fame through solo albums.
In the meantime the subsequent reissues of "Jimmie Dale and the Flatlanders" – on vinyl in the '80s as "One More Road" and on CD in the '90s as "More a Legend Than a Band" – have made it a classic of thinking-person's cosmic country. The music ranks, at least on my list, as one of the 50 best albums of the 20th century.
The debut recording by this group seemed destined to remain a beautiful one-shot until the trio reunited three decades later for "Now Again" in 2002. Though that was a good CD, the band was no longer the same: Because every member had acquired overlapping cult followings, it was important for each to have a chance at songwriting and lead vocals. One result is that the Flatlanders of the 21st century sound more like a singers-in-the-round session than an actual band.
Their followup, "Wheels of Fortune," has the same feel. Certainly it is still a recommended CD: The combination of the wisdom of Hancock, the reediness of Gilmore and the muscle of Ely is potent. The title track, "Wheels of Fortune," is the type of metaphysical relationship song the band does best (though it shines just as spectacularly on "Two Roads," an earlier concert recording with only Gilmore and Hancock). And it is interesting to hear Ely singing Gilmore's bluesy death dirge "Midnight Train" and his Zen rocker "Go to Sleep Alone."
But when measured against the omnipresent musical saw, the thin, desolate production and the cerebral, spiritual and lonesome lyrics of the band's debut recording, there is no comparison.
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