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Colin Gilmore
The Day The World Stopped and Spun the Other Way
Squire Records Inc., SQR 001
by Bonny Holder
 Because
Colin Gilmore is almost impossibly young almost 30 is young,
trust me he reminds me of my sunny suburban youth. Each
summer, there was a favorite song, a favorite album, that one
played a thousand times, because it fit that Lovin' Spoonful,
Beach Boys or R.E.M. head-bobbin' mood.
I don't mean that the summer album was a milestone CD. It
was the one you played when you wanted to cruise the strip, grab
some tacos, drink a little beer, sing along almost mindlessly.
The summer song had catchy lyrics, rhythm, optimism, a little
romance, and a hooky lightness (not liteness) appropriate to
the season of ripeness.
Colin Gilmore's The Day The World Stopped and Spun the
Other Way is that summer album for me. And everybody
asks he does not sound like his father, Jimmie Dale.
Sometimes it takes a little while to cotton up to JD's keening
pitch. Colin is more mainstream, plainer. He's not a crooner
nor is he particularly full-ranged.
The beauty part is that he's smart, he's funny, he's incredibly
likable. I've never seen him, even on TV. I got this impression
from the songs. "Low is low, and down is down, but Leadbelly's
on, that's a beautiful sound," he sings. "It's
a sound that will take me away, where the good times stay."
Gilmore was, literally, birthed into the Lubbock musical soup
peopled by Joe Ely, Terry Allen, Richard Bowden, Butch Hancock.
His mother, "Loretta," was a blues singer. He spent
his formative years hearing music at parties, roadhouses and
in his own living room.
The radio is on in the early dawn,
Candle's dripping on a torn up letter.
My dearest one, I'm on the run,
please remember me, for good or better.
He is a gentle soul, happy in love. " I tried
to take it soft, I tried to take it slow," he sings.
"But you picked me up and threw me into afterglow.
I am wading in your water, I an staring at your sky, and I just
saw Mother Mary's image floating by."
In a modern way, Colin Gilmore is as Texas as they come.
He's not a cowboy, either. In "The Way We Are,"
he celebrates his relationship with a very tasty Vox line
by bassist Kris Nelson.
Every night you and I catch a wanderin' eye
We stand out like trees in cotton rows.
It ain't a look, it ain't a style
we might throw down after awhile
It's the way we are, and that's the way it goes.
In "Live Forever," Gilmore takes a
zen approach.
Come the rain, come the shine,
we're gonna beat the sun to the horizon.
We'll see the world from up high,
and then die, like everybody else.
The arrangements on this CD are very tasty, with Gilmore on
vocals and guitar, Rob Gjersoe on guitar, Rob Hooper on drums,
Bukka Allen (Terry's son) on accordion and organ. Aussie (now
Austin-y) Audrey Auld lends her lovely voice to a couple of songs.
The duet she does with Gilmore, Terry Allen's "The
Beautiful Waitress," is a hoot. I have just two
words to say about that song: "Cracker crunch."
Colin Gilmore is the sound of the next generation of (almost
inbred!) Texas troubadours. It's so in his blood. "The
Day The World Stopped And Spun The Other Way" is
both strong and charming. All the songs are kind of zippy,
with the joy of life. This album will be in my CD changer until
the leaves of autumn begin to fall, and probably long after that.
www.colingilmore.com
You can contact Bonny Holder at bonny-at-rockzilla.net
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