For those unaware, All American Music is a foundational Americana album and an essential part of Texas music history, with songs like “Dallas” and “Tonight I’m Gonna Go Downtown” having become stand-alone classics. The album also gave rise to future Americana legends Butch Hancock, Joe Ely and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, solidifying its importance in American music.

Recorded in 1972 and scheduled for release the following year, All American Music was put on hold and went unissued except for a few copies that were released on 8-Track. It took a 1980 UK compilation to collect the known Flatlanders material, with a now out-of-print German compilation unearthing one more track in 2015.

Finally in 2024, Omnivore Recordings, in collaboration with Sun Records, brings all the known original Flatlanders tracks back to CD and a three-sided LP with a “musical saw” etching on side four. All American Music features all known 18 tracks from the sessions.

1. Dallas
2. The Heart You Left Behind
3. She Had Everything
4. Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown
5. Waiting For A Train
6. Rose From The Mountain
7. You’ve Never Seen Me Cry
8. Jole Blon
9. Bhagavan Decreed
10. Keeper Of The Mountain
11. Hello Stranger
12. Down In My Hometown [Bonus Track]
13. One Day At A Time [Bonus Track]
14. Stars In My Life [Bonus Track]
15. Not Long Ago [Bonus Track]
16. I Know You [Bonus Track]
17. One Road More [Bonus Track]
18. Dallas (Alternate) [Bonus Track]

This wonderfully ambient, and gloriously heartfelt recording opens on the free flowing Dallas, the lonesome love song The Heart You Left Behind, the all-embracing nature of She Had Everything and the shimmering Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown, and they are followed by the low slung, Yodel-Ay-Hee-Hoo of Waiting For A Train, the gently rambunctious Rose From The Mountain and the heartwarming You’ve Never Seen Me Cry, the original tracks rounding out on the upbeat Jole Blon, the impassioned Bhagavan Decreed and both the gently-sculpted Keeper Of The Mountain and the beautifully joyous Hello Stranger.

Along next are a series of bonus tracks on this now expanded edition CD set, which begin with the personal storytelling within Down In My Hometown, a dutifully sombre One Day At A Time, the quietly effective Stars In My Life, and then we next get the playful Not Long Ago, the cozy I Know You, coming to a close on the gently furtive One Road More and an alternate version of their opening track Dallas.

The Grammy-winning team of Michael Graves, Colin Escott and Cheryl Pawelski have respectively remastered, written liner notes and produced the new compilation.

As Colin Escott says in his notes, “More than a half-century later, The Flatlander’s’ original music still sounds fresh. It was truly a sound like no other. It’s a stretch to call an artist ‘prophetic’ if no one heard them, but in some ways The Flatlanders foretold the grab-all that became Americana Music.”

Omnivore presents Jimmie Dale And The Flatlanders [Official Video]

Official Purchase Link