The Flatlanders, the iconic Texas-based trio of Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, have released their new single “Moanin’ Of The Midnight Train” from their forthcoming album Treasure of Love (out July 9th via Rack ‘Em Records/Thirty Tigers).
One of the group’s originals featured on the album (this one penned by Hancock), the song is lean and gritty, evoking the vast emptiness of the West Texas landscape in all its bittersweet beauty and isolation.
Of the new song, Gilmore stated, "A soulful Joe Ely vocal and an emotionally complex Butch Hancock song is a powerful combination!" Ely continued, "'Moaning Of The Midnight Train' is a hard travelers guide to a ramblers vision of a long lost love."
“Moanin’ Of The Midnight Train” follows the release of their previous song “She Belongs To Me,” a stately and “jauntier” (The Boot) rendition of the Bob Dylan classic that splits the difference between Greenwich Village and Galveston. Lead single “Sittin’ on Top of the World” is also out now, which was embraced by American Songwriter and Rolling Stone among others.
Completed during COVID-19 lockdowns with the help of longtime friend and collaborator Lloyd Maines, Treasure of Love finds The Flatlanders in classic form, serving up a rollicking collection of twang-fueled, harmony-laden performances full of wry humor and raw heartbreak. While a few of the songs here are never-before-heard originals, the vast majority of the tracklist consists of vintage tunes the band picked up during their 50-year career, some stretching as far back as the group’s earliest performances in the honky tonks around Lubbock, TX.
The Flatlanders
“I like to say that this album evolved more than it was recorded,” explains Joe Ely, who hosted the initial recording sessions and worked extensively on the tracks at his Spur Studios in Austin, TX. “We’d been chipping away at these songs for a while without ever really finishing anything, so when lockdown started, it seemed like the perfect time to really focus on it.”
The 15 tracks on Treasure of Love revisit songs they enjoyed playing from the early days and capturing them for the sheer joy of it. Not realizing at the time that they were actually making a record, the trio worked fast and loose in the studio, laying down raw, playful takes whenever they had free time between sessions or tours. It was only when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Ely, Gilmore, and Hancock to simultaneously clear all of their calendars that the band realized they had an album on their hands and the time to finally complete it.
Treasure of Love Tracklist:
01) Moanin’ of the Midnight Train
02) Long Time Gone
03) Snowin’ on Raton
04) She Smiles Like a River
05) Love Oh Love Please Come Home
06) Give My Love to Rose
07) Treasure of Love
08) Satin Shoes
09) The Ballad of Honest Sam
10) Mama Do the Kangaroo
11) She Belongs to Me
12) I Don’t Blame You
13) Mobile Blues
14) Ramblin’ Man
15) Sittin’ on Top of the World
