Flatlanders Better Than Ever

Is there anything more disheartening in a pop world desperate for musicians with genuine spirit and heart than to see so many rewarding talents go virtually ignored year after year?

Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock were young West Texas singer-songwriters when they came together three decades ago as the Flatlanders to record an album of rare emotional purity and passion.

But the collection, based in the trio’s blues- and folk-influenced style of country, was so far from the conventional strains favored by Nashville radio programmers that it didn’t even get released, except on eight-track, for almost two decades.

The rejection, however, didn’t stop Ely, Gilmore and Hancock from recording numerous albums on their own and generating enough acclaim to, with luck, lift them above their cult-hero status.

After all this time, these old friends have gotten back together for some shows that included a stop Tuesday at the House of Blues in West Hollywood--and it proved to be a reunion with a twist.

Where so many reunions are nostalgia-driven exercises in which artists desperately try to recapture past glories, the Flatlanders are most certainly a more rewarding outfit today than they were the first time around.

Rather than material from the old album (“More a Legend Than a Band” on Rounder Records), the trio showcased in its nearly two-hour set several new tunes, including “I Thought the Wreck Was Over,” a rollicking, good-natured tale about a relationship from hell.

Besides songs by such Texas songwriting compatriots as Terry Allen and the late Townes Van Zandt, the Flatlanders played several tunes from the members’ individual albums. Songs such as Ely’s “I Had My Hopes Up High,” Gilmore’s “Dallas” and Hancock’s “West Texas Waltz” underscored the wide musical and emotional range of their collective body of work.

They took turns on lead vocal and relied on a bassist, a drummer and an electric guitarist to supplement their own acoustic guitars. Ely also threw in some flavorful dobro touches.

The reason the Flatlanders are more rewarding now is that the three artists have developed their own styles free of the compromises often required of band members.

Since the original acoustic Flatlanders lineup, Ely has evolved into the most commanding singer and performer of the three, thanks to a country-rock honky-tonk style so delightful that his supporters range from Willie Nelson to Keith Richards. Ely, who didn’t contribute any songs to the Flatlanders album, has also become a gifted writer.

Hancock has the slightest voice of the three, but he is an evocative songwriter in the understated, coffeehouse folk style of such fellow Texas writers as Guy Clark and Van Zandt.

Gilmore is the wild card, someone who can move from Western swing to cosmic meditations with extraordinary ease, thanks to a vocal style so ethereal and otherworldly that it sounds as if it is channeled from space.

By coming together, all three artists sacrifice some of their identity, but the blending of the diverse elements gave both the audience and the musicians a chance to celebrate a shared legacy that is too special to remain a cult item.