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Features The Gilmore Boy Sunday, December 30, 2007 The Texas Tornados. Brian Wise caught up with some up and coming Texas artists during his recent visit to Austin. In Part One he talks to Colin Gilmore, son of Jimmy Dale.
In Texas having the surname Gilmore must be somewhat like having the name Dylan, Lennon or Jagger anywhere else – especially if your father is the legendary Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Still Colin Gilmore is handling the situation with aplomb and almost reluctantly mentions his name when we are introduced at a BMI function in Austin honouring the millionth playing of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s performance of ‘Crossfire.’
When I suggest we should catch up for a chat before I leave the city I figure that here is a young man worth talking to and his CDs evidence the fact that he is paving his own musical path. Here is a terrifically talented musician that we will soon definitely hear a lot more of in his own right.
Colin Gilmore grew up in Lubbock TX and moved to Austin at age 14. His childhood was spent listening to his father and his father’s friends such as Joe Ely. He played in bands as diverse as punk and rockabilly and after going to college began to write songs and play under his own name. In the past few years has even opened for his father’s revered band The Flatlanders when they have occasionally got back together.
In 2002 Gilmore released an EP, 4 Of No Kind, and his debut album, The Day the World Stopped And Spun The Other Way, was released in 2004. It was produced by Mark Hallman (Eliza Gilkyson, Ani DiFranco, Tom Russell). All of the songs are originals apart from Terry Allen’s ‘The Beautiful Waitress’ and a version of The Clash’s ‘White Man In Hammersmith Palais’! It is difficult to understand why such a fine debut didn’t find a major or even minor label release – but that’s the industry these days.
In 2006 he wrote and recorded in Mill Valley with Scott Matthews (who has produced, engineered and played with artists such as Van Morrison, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Brian Wilson, Roy Orbison and Keith Richards). Matthews had heard a recording of his songs and invited him to California. The two co-wrote and recorded 3 songs in 3 days, playing every instrument - from guitars, to mandolin to bass harmonica. The result of the sessions is Gilmore’s latest recordings with Matthews is the 4 track EP Black Wine.
When we meet to talk about his music I suggest to Gilmore that he would probably rather be known for his own music than for his surname.
“Where possible,” he agrees. “Most people who know who he is really love him and respect him. I go around and he’s just a household name, that everybody accepts everywhere. I think he and Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and all those guys are such a family in a lot of ways, that being a part of it is, it’s really an honor and much more of a blessing than it would be to be the son of somebody who’s absolutely just completely hugely famous.
I suppose there would be almost no way you couldn’t become a musician would there, in Texas, being the son of another musician?
You’d be surprised. A lot of people I think are brought up - my siblings and a lot of other people - music’s just a part of their lives and they love it and they actually have some musical talent. It’s fairly rare, I think for people to say, ‘Okay, this is what I’m really going do with all of my time and really do with my life. It’s a big decision to make and its one that I’ve taken on.
There’s something in all of us - in my family, in most of the friends that I grew up with – where either we are going to try and make a living out of it and make it really our livelihood. Either way music is really a huge part of our lives and all is well. I feel like I’ll still be paying when I’m just about to die!
I suppose your father would’ve really been more of a role model, and you could’ve also seen some of the hard times as well as the good times. It’s not easy being a musician, even in Austin, Texas.
Yes, that’s very true. It’s a lot of ups and downs and a lot of unexpected elements. Obviously the music industry is changing a lot and I think life for people is changing in a lot of ways and the way people view musicians changes a whole lot. So overall, if you want to have a life of playing music you have to be prepared for the unexpected and prepared for it to be an adventure with a lot of ups and downs. Overall, that’s what I’ve learned from my Dad and his contemporaries.
There would’ve been some good learning experiences and lots of friends of your Dad’s who would’ve told you some stories about life on the road.
Absolutely and I think and especially Joe Ely. Just hearing him tell stories of being on the road is enough to just go ‘Wow!’ That’s what life can be like. (Laughs). That’s what I’m getting myself into maybe.
You recorded an album a couple a years ago called The Day the World Stopped and Spun the Other Way. Tell us a little bit about that album.
It’s an album that I released on my own. Me and the producer Mark Hallman recorded it and put it out on our own. We created a label called Squirm Records with only that album on it. We decided that even though not one of us knew quite how to do a label; we decided we’d give it a shot and right now it’s my only full-length album. But I was really proud of it. Mark’s really talented and we rounded up some really good musicians for it and Mark’s really made a name for himself. I think my style was a little bit different from what he’d recorded before but he was up to the task.
I recently made an EP in 2007 called Black Wine. I toured Japan and I recorded that one chiefly for Japan. If you look on the cover it’s got Black Wine in Japanese. Now I’m just selling it at shows pretty much and I’m doing a little bit of stuff, a little bit of radio for it, but haven’t done any kind of big push for it.
You recorded it with Scott Matthews, didn’t you?
I recorded two of the songs on there I co-wrote with Scott Matthews and we co-wrote and recorded some songs together a few years ago and became really good friends and mutual admirers of each other’s work. So I’m hoping to record with him again soon and he’s hoping to also. Once we just figure out the logistics of it. The other two songs I wrote on my own and recorded in just south of here, south of Austin and finished the album up here in Austin, in Wonderland studios.
What was that experience like for you going over there [to California] and working with this guy who’s kinda got this legendary reputation.
It was amazing because as legendary as he is, he’s so under the radar, for all that he’s done. He’s so humbled and unassuming. I stepped into his studio and I look around and see that he’s worked with Keith Richards and Ringo Starr. Pretty much anybody who I admire he’s played with or recorded with or he’s co-written with - from the bottom to the top too.
So, it was amazing at just how comfortable he and I were working together and how quickly just off the bat, we hit it off. We loved each other’s story, we loved each other’s way of co-writing. I stayed on his boat, called The Abigail, that he had musicians stay on. He tried to get Van Morrison to stay on it but he was afraid that it had become untethered, he wouldn’t do it!
I stayed on it and I actually had a night that I was afraid that Abigail was going to become untethered. A big storm came by and that was the last song we wrote. I started writing a song that was basically begging Abigail not to sink - in the most poetic way I could. So Scott helped me finish the song and now it’s near and dear to both of us.
Since then, we’ve become good friends, he’s come over here several times and I tried to show him around town as good as I could.
Is there any more work for you two, say another album coming up in some stage?
I’m really hoping so. The plans are still a little bit up in the air but we definitely plane on working together in the not too distant future, absolutely.
It’s a kind of a mystery to me how a guy like yourself with impeccable credentials, hasn’t got record labels lining up to sign him.
You know it’s really funny. I think the music industry is strange right now but I am talking. I’m still talking to Rounder - they expressed great interest in my first recording. I went independent for that one but I’m still talking to Rounder, still talking to a few labels. To be honest I’m only now just getting into it. I’m just learning the art of putting stuff out there for labels.
So you’re just learning it now?
Just learning it now. It’s really funny, it’s an art form that I just avoided for a lot of years. So now I’m getting into it. Music always to me by nature was something that you did for fun. Making a business behind it or merging the fun and the business side of it has never come naturally to me. It’s something I’ve had to learn bit by bit.
Well, when you sign to a label, they’ll be able to take care of really a lot of things that you don’t really want to have to do in the industry, won’t they?
I’m hoping so. It seems to me that labels are even more reluctant to do that. Just from what I hear. I’m no expert - from what I hear and from what I see and when I talk to label - I think that maybe because there are more and more musicians out there, they want to see that the artist is fully developed before they take you on - compared to even maybe ten years ago.
Also there’s just a whole lot of more avenues for artists just to be able to do their own stuff. There’s a lot more opportunity for promotion but on the other hand that’s still a whole lot of work, no matter what avenues you are taking. No matter how easy they make it for you, there’s still a whole lot of work to do, to book a tour, to promote yourself to radio and to do all this and maintain the fun and spirit of why you’re doing the whole thing in the first place.
I guess if you’re a developing musician, Austin, Texas is not a bad place to develop. It’s an amazingly musical town, isn’t it?
Yes, it’s a wonderful place. There’s so much music here. If you put your mind to it you can always see something going on here - whether its art, or music. Also you can take a little drive and be out in wilderness again. I think that’s really important for someone that’s looking for inspiration and keeping an eye out for what kind shape the world’s taking on. It’s a very hot spot for that.
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