Alternative Canon | The Flatlanders – More A Legend Than A Band (1990)

by David Wilikofsky

In Alternative Canon, we take a closer look at an obscure or underappreciated album from the past that deserves more recognition. Some of these albums may be hard to find, but they’re always worth the effort to seek out.

More A Legend Than A Band tells you everything you need to know about The Flatlanders. Formed in 1972 by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely, the original incarnation of the band lasted only one year. After recording a full album and having the lead single, “Dallas”, flop, the band scrapped the album and disbanded.

This easily could have been the end of the story, but anyone who knows Texas country music knows each of these names. The three members found solo success in music after the band; Gilmore even had a small role in The Big Lebowski. As their reputations grew, The Flatlanders was whispered about as a lost supergroup. More A Legend Than A Band collected the 1970s recordings of the band and unleashed them into the world.

The first thing that will jump out at you is Gilmore’s voice. Its distinctive high register imbues the music with an immediate emotional force. The band makes heavy use of the musical saw, whose high pitched warbles play off Gilmore’s vocals across the album. Alongside the otherwise relatively straightforward arrangements here, the saw gives many of the tracks an alien quality; it’s something that you don’t hear even in modern country music. It sounds fresh to the contemporary ear.

As songwriters, all of the members can easily carry their weight. “My Rose from the Mountain” is a classic tale of the country boy moving to the city and eventually returning to their home. In this song, Rose is the narrator’s girl, but a wilted rose becomes a metaphor for the effect city life has had on her. “Dallas”, the flopped single, is sublime, a love letter to the city as seen from above. Each metaphor is more poetic than the last. “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown”, a Gilmore classic that he would go on to record again (and name a whole album after), tells the tale of a man trying to get his mind off his lost love by going out on the town. Every song here could be endlessly dissected, but it’s probably better to just hear the music. It speaks for itself.

The story of The Flatlanders didn’t end here. The group reunited and released multiple albums of new music in the early 2000s. But I always find myself returning to these earlier recordings; they create a whole universe unto themselves. More A Legend Than A Band isn’t readily available, but most of the tracks can be streamed (albeit with a different order) on Jimmie Dale Gilmore and The Flatlanders : Unplugged. If you’ve never entered the world of The Flatlanders, do yourself a favor and check them out today.