Treasure of Love The Flatlanders

• 1 Moanin' of the Midnight Train 04:18
• 2 Long Time Gone 02:53
• 3 Snowin' on Raton 03:43
• 4 She Smiles Like a River 02:44
• 5 Love, Please Come Home 02:56
• 6 Give My Love to Rose 02:57
• 7 Treasure of Love 02:08
• 8 Satin Shoes 03:57
• 9 The Ballad of Honest Sam 04:02
• 10 Mama Does the Kangaroo 03:11
• 11 She Belongs to Me 03:47
• 12 I Don't Blame You 03:33
• 13 Mobile Blue 02:46
• 14 Ramblin' Man 03:24
• 15 Sittin' on Top of the World 04:24
• Total Runtime 50:43

Info for Treasure of Love

Bemerkenswerterweise begann die Band vor einigen Jahren mit den Aufnahmen des Albums in Joe Elys Spur Studios in Austin, TX, aber das Album blieb unvollendet, bis die Pandemie die Solo-Tourneen der drei Singer/Songwriter/Gitarristen auf Eis legte. Daraufhin beschlossen sie, die Aufnahmen mit ihrem langjährigen Kollaborateur, dem legendären texanischen Country-Produzenten und Multi-Instrumentalisten Lloyd Maines, und der Co-Produzentin Sharon Ely wieder aufzunehmen, um das Album zu einer Full-Band-Produktion auszubauen, die neben einer breiten Auswahl an Klassikern aus dem amerikanischen Songbook auch einige neue Eigenkompositionen enthält, darunter Bob Dylans "She Belongs To Me", George Jones' "Treasure of Love", Townes Van Zandts "Snowin' on Raton" und den vielleicht bemerkenswertesten Live-Show-Schlusspunkt der Band "Sittin' on Top of the World".

Die 15 Tracks auf "Treasure of Love" greifen Songs auf, die sie in den frühen Tagen gerne gespielt haben und die sie aus purer Freude daran aufgenommen haben. Zu dieser Zeit war dem Trio nicht bewusst, dass sie tatsächlich eine Platte machten, sie arbeiteten schnell und locker im Studio und legten rohe, spielerische Takes auf, wann immer sie zwischen den Sessions oder Touren Zeit hatten. Erst als die COVID-19-Pandemie Ely, Gilmore und Hancock dazu zwang, gleichzeitig alle ihre Kalender zu streichen, wurde der Band klar, dass sie ein Album in den Händen hielten und die Zeit hatten, es endlich fertigzustellen.

"Viele Gruppen in unserem Alter sind entweder tot oder sprechen nicht mehr miteinander", sagt Gilmore, "aber ich denke, ein Teil des Grundes, warum The Flatlanders immer noch zusammen sind, ist, dass wir alle unsere eigenen, separaten Karrieren auf dem Weg gebracht hatten. Wir sind alle so seltsame Individualisten, aber wir können dieses Schiff gemeinsam steuern, weil wir jedes Mal, wenn wir zurückkommen, dieselbe Magie spüren, die wir spürten, als wir anfingen, zusammen zu spielen."

The Flatlanders

The Flatlanders
Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock -- add a bit of Texas twang to a 50-plus-year-old Bob Dylan song with their cover of "She Belongs to Me." The brand-new recording is premiering exclusively via The Boot; press play below to listen.

Dylan originally released "She Belongs to Me" in 1965, on his Bringing It All Back Home album, though it's since been covered by everyone from the Flying Burrito Brothers to Tna Turner. The Flatlanders' rendition is a bit jauntier than the original; Ely praises Gilmore's delivery of the lyrics for their "mystical universal appeal."

"I loved this song the first time I heard it and have never grown tired of it. Although it is written from the male perspective, it touches upon the plight of a strong woman living in (what is still) a man’s world," Gilmore reflects. "Dylan was prescient in his understanding of so many of the dilemmas that have now become almost common knowledge. Butch, Joe and I have shared an appreciation of Dylan’s artistry and wit from the beginning, and after performing this for so many years, I am happy to finally have a recorded version of it on a Flatlanders release."

Adds Hancock, "Jimmie's voice and this song still echo the miles and smiles the Flatlanders have shared."

Listen to the Flatlanders' "She Belongs to Me":

"She Belongs to Me" appears on Treasure of Love, the Flatlanders' forthcoming new album, their first in more than a decade. The trio recorded the bones of project's 15 songs at Ely's own Spur Studios, located in Austin, Texas, before the COVID-19 pandemic, then enlisted legendary musician Lloyd Maines to help them finish the record, which Maines co-produced with Ely and his wife Sharon.

Treasure of Love combines select unreleased originals with favorites from throughout the Flatlanders years together -- Townes Van Zandt's "Snowin' on Raton" and "She Smiles Like a River" by Leon Russell, for example -- which stretch back to the early 1970s. Their most recent album is 2009's Hills & Valleys, though The Odessa Tapes, which features unreleased recordings from the trio's earliest sessions, arrived in 2012.

"The thing that's always struck me about the Flatlanders is that, first and foremost, it's a band rooted in friendship," says Gilmore. "Whenever the three of us get together, it all feels so fresh and exciting and unpredictable."

Between disbanding in 1973 and reuniting after the 1990 reissue of their original recordings, the Flatlanders each cultivated successful solo careers, which continue today. That success, Gilmore reasons, is what's kept them together as a trio.

"We're all such strange individualists," he says, "but we can co-captain this ship together because every time we come back to it, we feel that same magic we felt when we first started playing together."

This album contains no booklet.