Texas troubadore Jimmie Dale Gilmore and an ace backing band turned in a top-notch acoustic performance on this Sunday evening, a day after Gilmore marked his 55th birthday in Seattle. It was the second night of a spring-summer tour that will take him full circle around the U.S. and back to Seattle for the Bumbershoot festival over Labor Day weekend.
“Full circle” is an apt metaphor for Gilmore, his music and his life. In addition to being an excellent country-folk singer and songwriter, Gilmore is a Buddhist. The man radiates peace even as he plays sad, bluesy songs, and he is smilingly generous to his band members.
Christine Albert and Chris Gage, who perform as Albert and Gage, opened with a handful of soulful country tunes, ranging from their own numbers to covers that included James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy.” They remained on stage as the anchors of Gilmore’s band, which also included bassist Brad Fordham and guitarist Rob Gjersoe.
Gilmore and the band worked through about 15 songs in a little more than an hour, including nine from Gilmore’s recent record, One Endless Night. Albert and Gage provided solid backing vocals. Albert played rhythm guitar and Gage played a competent accordion and mandolin and superb lead guitar. Gjersoe also played lead and rhythm guitar on an acoustic and a lovely National resonator. Several times during the set, Gilmore took a step back and turned the stage over to Gage and Gjersoe’s dueling guitars, as the sparks flew from the strings and the crowd egged them on.
Brunish Hall is a bare, spare rectangle of a room with surprisingly sparkling acoustics. The only thing that marred the performance was an ongoing problem with Gjersoe’s guitar pickup. He eventually unplugged it and lowered his vocal microphone down to guitar level, which gave his dobro a ringing, gutbucket sound.
Gjersoe, who grinned a lot but didn’t grandstand (although with his caliber of playing he could be excused if he did) was a clear crowd favorite. Albert and Gage also endeared themselves with their down-home manner and expert musicianship. Fordham’s extremely battered electric Fender bass provided a solid bottom and rhythm for the band, crucial in an otherwise totally acoustic setting.
Like the calm in the eye of a storm, Gilmore stood centerstage, stepped up to his mic, told brief stories and sang his songs. He told of how he had lived in Austin, Texas, for several years before discovering that the body of water known as “Town Lake” is really a part of the Colorado River. Well, not the Colorado River, but “Another Colorado River,” the title of a song off his 1993 Elektra release, Spinning Around the Sun.
The show was a benefit for the Portland, Ore., Humane Society, and Gilmore read a brief plug for the Society and talked about his four dogs before launching into the cantina-style ballad “Blue Shadows.”
Every song was a good song, either because of Gilmore’s delivery or because of his band’s playing or, usually, both. Even the few that don’t stand out on record were good to listen to. Willis Alan Ramsey’s “Goodbye Old Missoula,” about a traveling musician’s unrequited love for a local girl, is a bit long and slow, but Gage’s understated mandolin playing and Gilmore’s mournful but dignified delivery gave it just the right emotional impact.
Perhaps not surprisingly for a crowd mostly in their 40s and 50s, the only song that got applause at the beginning as well as the end was the Grateful Dead’s “Ripple.” But most of the applause was served up for the dymanic interplay between Gage’s and Gjersoe’s guitar-picking. So Gilmore wisely scrapped his planned encore numbers and went with the traditional bluegrass song “Way Downtown,” standing back and letting the two flail away at it. The players had a ball and the crowd went away happy.
