World Premiere: The Odessa Tapes

Jimmy Dale Gilmore. Butch Hancock. Joe Ely. Three of the most respected singer-songwriters in Americana music.

The story of how they joined forces once-upon-a-time in their native Lubbock is so much the stuff of myth that when their rare first Nashville recording was reissued on Rounder in the early ‘90’s, it was titled “More a Legend than a Band.” Despite overdubs and other compromises meant to make the record more palatable to ‘70’s country radio, The Flatlanders’ Nashville sessions have long been regarded as a seminal work in the evolution of ‘alternative country’ music.

The recording was a sales flop, but it helped launch the careers of Gilmore, Hancock and Ely—leading the New York Times to brand The Flatlanders a “supergroup in reverse.”

Read the full article at KUT.