Jimmie Dale Gilmore: One Endless Night

Jimmie Dale Gilmore has one of the least predictable personas in country music, as well as one of its most beautiful voices. A member of the legendary Flatlanders alongside Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, Gilmore is equally awash in country tradition and hippie mysticism, like a sort of Willie Nelson without all the mainstream success. At home singing with Emmylou Harris or acting in the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski, he ought to be a much bigger star than he is. While Gilmore's new One Endless Night is far too modestly charming to serve as a commercial breakout—if the endlessly worthy Braver Newer World, After Awhile, or Spinning Around The Sun couldn't reach a wide audience, what could—it's awfully engaging. Here, he seems mostly content to cover his favorite songs, sticking primarily to the great works of similarly famous-on-the-margins songwriters like Townes Van Zandt ("No Lonesome Tune"), John Hiatt ("Your Love Is My Rest"), and Jesse Winchester ("Defying Gravity") with the help of such appropriate guests as Julie and Buddy Miller, Victoria Williams, and Jim Lauderdale. A few exceptional songs aside (a lovely cover of The Grateful Dead's "Ripple" included), the results are rarely transcendent, but Gilmore's gorgeous, soothing voice is enough to make an event out of even the most unassuming record.