Label: NEW WEST
Rating:

Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore-known collectively as the Flatlanders-are three of Americana music’s most venerable elders, each an iconic singer/songwriter in his own right. The latest record to come from the Texas trio’s long-running collaboration, however, is more inconsequential than iconic. Hills and Valleys is a perfunctory effort that ambles lethargically along, an album chock-full of well-spun tales that, despite exceptional detail drawn by these great storytellers, amounts to little more than prototypical folk musings.