Fair & Square (Jimmie Dale Gilmore album)

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Fair & Square
Fair & Square (Jimmie Dale Gilmore album).jpg
Studio album by
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Released1988
Genre Honky tonk
Label HighTone
Producer Joe Ely
Jimmie Dale Gilmore chronology
Fair & Square
(1988)		Jimmie Dale Gilmore
(1989)

Fair & Square is the debut solo album by the American musician Jimmie Dale Gilmore, released in 1988. [1] [2] Gilmore supported the album with several live dates. [3] The first single was "Trying to Get to You". [4]

Contents

Production

The album was produced by Joe Ely, who also provided backing vocals. [5] [6] Gilmore was backed by his band, the Continental Drifters. [7] Lloyd Maines contributed on steel guitar. [8] Most of the songs are representative of traditional honky tonk music. [9] "Just a Wave, Not the Water" and "99 Holes" are covers of the Butch Hancock songs. [10] [11] "White Freight Liner Blues" was written by Townes Van Zandt. [12] "Honky Tonk Masquerade" is a cover of the notable Ely song. [13] "Rain Just Falls" was written by Gilmore's guitarist, David Halley. [14] "Singing the Blues" is a version of the popular standard. [15]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [16]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [17]
Oakland Tribune Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
(The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [13]
Spin Alternative Record Guide 7/10 [14]

Trouser Press deemed the album "a warm, relatively brisk and surprisingly traditional comeback." [12] The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that "Gilmore's high honky-tonk wail of a voice dances lightly over the superb backing of his band." [7] Spin concluded that, "between Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow at their oddball best, you'd probably rather listen to Jimmie Dale." [18]

The Houston Chronicle said that "Gilmore strays across his influences that came together in Lubbock as a teen-ager when West Texas honky-tonk country gave way to the big beat and velocity of this new thing, rock 'n' roll." [8] The Orange County Register determined that Gilmore "can offer a sound that is completely new yet still starkly and inarguably country." [19] The Los Angeles Times concluded that Gilmore's "nasal twang—similar to, but less laconic than Willie Nelson's—is plenty poetic in itself." [20] USA Today listed Fair & Square as the 4th best country album of 1988. [21]

AllMusic noted that "the subtle undercurrents of Gilmore's best material seem to have been left by the wayside, as if a coffeehouse singer/songwriter had been thrown into a dance hall and was trying to avoid getting the hook." [16]

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."White Freight Liner Blues" 
2."Honky Tonk Masquerade" 
3."Fair & Square" 
4."Don't Look for a Heartache" 
5."Trying to Get to You" 
6."Singing the Blues" 
7."Just a Wave, Not the Water" 
8."All Grown Up" 
9."99 Holes" 
10."Rain Just Falls" 

References

  1. ↑ "Jimmie Dale Gilmore Biography by Kurt Wolff". AllMusic. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  2. ↑ Goldstein, Patrick (February 7, 1988). "Pop Eye". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 83.
  3. ↑ Joyce, Mike (August 22, 1988). "Jimmie Dale Gilmore". The Washington Post. p. C7.
  4. ↑ "Gilmore". Austin American-Statesman. June 3, 1988. p. D12.
  5. ↑ Powell, Austin; Freeman, Doug, eds. (2011). The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology. University of Texas Press. p. 82.
  6. 1 2 Kelp, Larry (February 28, 1988). "Recordings". Calendar. Oakland Tribune. p. 8.
  7. 1 2 Pick, Steve (March 4, 1988). "2 Texans Carry On the Country Tradition". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. p. H5.
  8. 1 2 Racine, Marty (March 6, 1988). "Records". Zest. Houston Chronicle. p. 11.
  9. ↑ Dicaire, David (2014). The New Generation of Country Music Stars: Biographies of 50 Artists Born After 1940. McFarland, Inc. p. 58.
  10. ↑ Trageser, Jim (February 26, 1988). "Gilmore, Sun Rhythm, Dixon". San Diego Evening Tribune. p. C2.
  11. ↑ Wykoff, David (March 3, 1988). "Records". Calendar. The Boston Globe. p. 8.
  12. 1 2 "Jimmie Dale Gilmore". Trouser Press. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  13. 1 2 (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon & Schuster. 2004. p. 331.
  14. 1 2 Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. 1995. pp. 148, 149.
  15. ↑ Zimmerman, Dave (November 3, 1988). "Country". USA Today. p. 5D.
  16. 1 2 "Fair & Square Review by Mark Deming". AllMusic. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  17. ↑ MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1996. p. 288.
  18. ↑ Bull, Bart (October 1988). "The Last (Album) Roundup". Spin. Vol. 4, no. 7. p. 68.
  19. ↑ Davis, Noel (March 11, 1988). "The Flatlander's lead singer was Jimmie Dale Gilmore...". Orange County Register. p. P38.
  20. ↑ Hochman, Steve (May 23, 1988). "Wisdom, Wisecracks by Gilmore and Hancock". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 2.
  21. ↑ "Yoakam is tops, Bellamys not". USA Today. December 13, 1988. p. 5D.
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