Jimmie Dale Gilmore: One Endless Night (Windcharger/Rounder)

Jimmie Dale Gilmore

One Endless Night (Windcharger/Rounder)

Jimmie Dale Gilmore is a helluva singer, but he's no Bobby Darin. That much is painfully evident as he lolls his way through a toothless reading of "Mack the Knife" so flaccid it can't even qualify as camp. Fortunately, it's about the only misstep on One Endless Night. The rest is a toe-tapping Lyle Lovett/Step Inside This House clone whose hi-res acoustic sheen resembles one of co-producer Buddy Miller's solo albums or Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Matter of fact, Butch Hancock's "Down by the Banks" is a virtual doppelgänger for "Another Colorado," the Gilmore /Lucinda Williams gem from 1993's Spinning Around the Sun, only with Victoria Williams on harmony this time. Head of this class are Townes Van Zandt's "No Lonesome Tune," Hancock's "Rambling Man," and Walter Hyatt's "Georgia Rose," with John Hiatt's "Your Love Is My Rest," the hidden blues "Goin' to Dallas," and Gilmore's title cut not far behind, each as chiming and of-the-soil as the best moments on After Awhile and Spinning. Thanks to some tangy fiddle from Tammy Rogers, Gilmore even manages to mold the Grateful Dead's "Ripple" into a perfect Threadgill's suppertime singalong. Just keep him away from the rest of The Three Penny Opera -- or "Beyond the Sea," for that matter.