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The Flatlanders
Friday Nov 20, 2009 7:30 PM
Country music supergroup tours in support of their acclaimed new album "Hills and Valleys."
The Flatlanders | 7:30 PM
 The Camden Opera House presents alternative country music supergroup the Flatlanders! General Admission tickets are $37.50 and are available at the Camden Town Office M-F 9 - 3 PM; at the Owl & Turtle Bookshop in Camden, Wild Rufus in Belfast, Grasshopper Shop in Rockland, Mexicali Blues in Newcastle, Musician's 1st Choice in Augusta,on this site or by calling 207-470-7066.
Box Office will open at 6:15 on Friday November 20; Doors to auditorium at 7. Ryan Bingham opens at 7:30. Beer and wine and snacks will be offered at intermission, followed by the Flatlanders at 8:30 PM.
Opening act is Ryan Bingham of Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses, fresh from an appearance on the David Letterman show with his new hit single "Tell My Mother I Miss Her So". Ryan’s gig on Letterman can be viewed on YouTube at: http: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIFsJmLbfWc – Ryan’s performance begins two and a half minutes into the video clip.
The Flatlanders have appeared on the David Letterman Show, Prairie Home Companion, and now the Camden Opera House stage. They are the composers of several songs on the soundtrack to the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer..”
Western Textures, Eastern Light
With "Hills and Valleys," the Flatlanders shine delicate musical light on the idea of Impermanence
By Brad Buchholz
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Texas philosopher-troubadours known as the Flatlanders are about to share with us the most sublime album of their career — an existential gem, dappled with Eastern light. Imagine "All Things Must Pass" with a High Plains drawl and a musical saw, rich with whimsy and wisdom, a collection of songs that appreciates and honors the vast, delicate moment that is now.
The men who conceived it — Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, friends and collaborators since they met in Lubbock, TX more than 40 years ago — realize there's a particular sparkle in this recording, a creative promise fulfilled.
"When I listen to this music, it's like looking into an old rancher's eyes," says Lloyd Maines, who produced "Hills and Valleys,"You can look into that rancher's face, and see those lines, and know that he's been around the block. What these three guys have done on this record is taken everything they've lived, everything they've learned, and written it down."
"Hills and Valleys" starts with allusions to specific, literal things — Hurricane Katrina, for example, or Texas-Mexico border wall. Yet at its core, the album is about bigger matters, spiritual matters, interior matters. It considers humanity and humility, our preposterous smallness in a vast world, the idea of interconnection, the possibility of love, the breath of creation, the spiritual value of journey.
Impermanence. It's a word never uttered on "Hills and Valleys." Yet it's the breeze that ripples over every song.
They are best described from a Washington Post review of an appearance at the Birchmere:
" Entering something like their 37th year of existence, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore exude a timeless sheen, a kind of immutable connection with their music that was apparent even when they played songs from their new disc. But it was the rising and falling of the 90 minute set -- aided by a spontaneous and scorching appearance from Bill Kirchen -- that lent it an understated majesty....Fittingly, the set's highlight came from a shifty, mid-tempo number: "No Way I'll Never Need You" rose and dipped with a suppleness that wasn't really country, Tex-Mex, folk or rock-and-roll. It was simply a Flatlanders tune and sometimes, those are the only kind that will do."
"The best Flatlanders album yet...Like a fine wine, these guys just get better with age...If this doesn't get a Grammy nomination, I'd be awfully surprised (but in what category??). The Flatlanders are in a category all their own."
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