Come on Back

1	Pick Me Up on Your Way Down 3:00
2	Saginaw, Michigan 3:16
3	Standin' on the Corner Blue Yodel No. 9 2:58
4	Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes 2:07
5	Four Walls 3:32
6	I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive 2:59
7	Walking the Floor Over You 2:23
8	I'm Movin' On 3:01
9	Don't Worry 'Bout Me 3:16
10	Train of Love 3:36
11	Jimmie Brown the Newsboy 2:15
12	Gotta Travel On 3:41
13	Peace in the Valley 3:01

Barnes & Noble

A collection of country and pop evergreens, Come on Back is Jimmie Dale Gilmore's heartfelt tribute to his late father, who recently succumbed to the ravages of ALS and who counted these among his favorite songs. With the unerring producing/arranging assistance of fellow Flatlander Joe Ely (who also sits in on multiple instruments and vocals), Gilmore puts his personal stamp on these timeless numbers while embracing the essence of the originals. Marty Robbins's wonderful "Don't Worry About Me" was one of the first recordings to feature a distorted electric guitar sound; in Gilmore's new rendition, that novelty turns into a big, buzzing note jumping out near the end of the tune. His version of Jimmie Rodgers's "Standin' on the Corner (Blue Yodel No. 9)" retains the familiar Rodgers pickin' style but shuffles along at a brisker pace than the original. Johnny Cash's "Train of Love" is easy enough to spot, with its familiar top-strings riff, but the two succinct guitar solos -- one twang rich, the other trebly and longing -- are more from the Richard Bennett school than that of Luther Perkins. An oft-covered song built on a Carter Family lyric, "Gotta Travel On" is neither the folk number of Woody Guthrie's imagining nor the brisk, countrified rocker that was a hit for Billy Grammer in 1958, but rather a rambunctious, scintillating fusion of rockabilly and western swing. On a heart-tugging treatment of Jim Reeves's smash "Four Walls," what was an orchestra on the original is now a wash of shimmering guitars and soft percussion. In closing with a stripped-down version of Thomas A. Dorsey's "Peace in the Valley" that accents the hope in the lyrical message, Gilmore the son pays moving homage to Gilmore the father, who clearly was a hell of a man. David McGee

All Music Guide

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's first two albums were high-spirited honky tonk sessions that owed more to the great Texas dance hall tradition than the Zen cowboy leanings of Gilmore's masterpiece, 1991's After Awhile. To many listeners it probably seemed that the latter album was a more personal and heartfelt project than his earlier sides -- but then again, maybe it wasn't. Come on Back, Gilmore's seventh solo album, is a set of covers very much in the spirit of his debut set, Fair and Square, but a reading of Gilmore's liner notes offers a wealth of perspective on what these songs mean to him. Come on Back was recorded in tribute to Jimmie Dale's late father, Brian Gilmore, an amateur guitar picker who, as his son puts it, "accorded one class of people an exalted level of esteem that bordered on reverence" -- musicians and songwriters. Brian Gilmore loved the great country songs of the 1940s and '50s, which Jimmie Dale describes as "simple, well-crafted, unpretentious little gems from a wonderfully creative period in American commercial music." And while Jimmie Dale Gilmore may not have written a note of music on Come on Back, his performances of these songs, which speak clearly of the complexities of life and love as expressed in simple but eloquent terms, never fail to hit the proper grace note. This disc's many lovely moments document not just how Gilmore's love for this music was passed on to him by his father, but how the lessons he learned from his family are reflected in the home truths of these tunes. None of this is to suggest that Come on Back is a dark, or morbid record; the joy in this music is palpable, Gilmore is in superb voice on these sessions, and Joe Ely's production is as fine as it is unobtrusive. Though he's a gifted songwriter, Gilmore has always been a fine interpretive singer as well, and the full depth of his vocal talent is on display on Come on Back -- without reading his deeply moving liner notes, this sounds like an excellent collection of classic country and folk standards. Listen again after reading his essay, and you hear a tribute to a life well lived, and the many ways his father's life shaped his own. Come on Back is a quietly extraordinary album, and Gilmore's finest work since After Awhile. Mark Deming