Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore are still here! Join us as we present great music and fun conversation with this wonderful duo of musical legends. Also on stage is Brennen Leigh from Texas, who shares her flavorful blend of classic Country music. Nick also has a sit-down with Lisa Morey, inventor of EcoBlox, to discuss the future of building with ancient materials.
That’s all this week on eTown!
Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
When Grammy winner Dave Alvin and Grammy nominee Jimmie Dale Gilmore made the album Downey To Lubbock together in 2018, they wrote the title track as a sort of mission statement. “I know someday this old highway’s gonna come to an end,” Alvin sings near the song’s conclusion. Jimmie Dale answers: “But I know when it does you’re going to be my friend.”
Six years later, they’re serving notice that the old highway hasn’t ended yet. “We’re still standing, no matter what you might hear,” they sing on “We’re Still Here,” the final track to their new album TexiCali. TexiCali continues to bridge the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Dave) and Texas (Jimmie Dale).
The geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Jimmie Dale and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. As Dave puts it in the liner notes, those road trips informed the music they made on TexiCali:
“From one part of the borderland to another, through concrete swaths of traffic, tract homes and shopping malls, across vast rocky deserts of Joshua trees, saguaros and ocotillo, speeding by forgotten battlefields, remote mining towns, corrido barrooms, cinder block churches and abandoned houses filled with abandoned dreams, past Mission San Xavier del Bac, Cochise’s Stronghold and Apache Pass, into the shimmering lights of El Paso/Juarez before the seemingly eternal emptiness of West Texas, traveling those 1,400 miles somewhere between Nothingness and Everything.”
Legends in their own right, Jimmie’s genre-defying music and poetic lyrics have shaped alt-country and earned critical acclaim. Dave, a Grammy-winning artist, co-founder of The Blasters and self-described barroom guitarist, is considered by many to be one of the pivotal pioneers of Americana.
Brennen Leigh
Brennen Leigh is an American songwriter, guitar player, mandolin player and singer whose to-the-point storytelling style has elevated her to cult icon status in Europe, Scandinavia, across the United States, South America and the United Kingdom. Her songs have been recorded by Lee Ann Womack, Rodney Crowell, Sunny Sweeney, Charley Crockett, and many others. As renowned for her musicianship as for her writing, it’s easy to see how Leigh caught the ear of greats like Guy Clark, who colorfully endorsed her. David Olney, who described her writing as “tender, violent, sentimental, foolish and wise, she is always Brennen. Confident and at ease with herself, without being a jerk about it.”
Awash in full-throttle fiddle, weeping steel guitar, a sprinkling of heavenly backing vocals, and anchored by her warm, expressive vocals, Brennen Leigh’s latest album is an emotion-packed revelation. Rooted in vintage country, Ain’t Through Honky Tonkin’ Yet is an unapologetically beer- and tear-soaked homage to an era when hard-country weepers burst forth from AM transistor radios.
“I’m in love with this idea of the real Nashville,”says Brennen. “The idyllic golden age, which, to me, is around 1967, 1968, because of the alchemy, the explosion that occurred, with the best country music songwriters ever, the best singers in country music.” The album’s country roots run deep, with guests like Marty Stuart and Rodney Crowell and a lineup of top-flight musicians, yet each track soars with abandon. With thoughtful, incisive lyrics and vibrant melodies at the forefront, Leigh has successfully created a modern gem while honoring country music’s enduring golden era.
Lisa Morey
Lisa is a professional engineer and architectural designer who has been working in the construction industry since 2000. She started building with adobe bricks while living and working in New Zealand. There she was involved in a design-build firm that constructed nearly 50 homes. From this work Lisa published a book Adobe Homes for all Climates.
Lisa’s mission is to scale the natural building industry by offering an affordable wall system made from locally obtained material. Her company Colorado Earth has been recognized in providing fire-wise wall systems and reducing carbon emissions. Lisa was recently selected as a West Gate Innovator to work with the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden on the thermal performance of thermal mass. She is also a mother of two, and enjoys ping pong and water-skiing.