Billy Crompton-Bass
Tim Bennett-Drums
Jay Bennett-Guitar
Management and Booking:
Tantrum Management & Touring
Matt Suhar
3341 W. Berteau Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618
mattsuhar@sbcglobal.net
Publicity:
Patrice Fehlen
September Gurl
718.768.3859
email: patrice@septembergurl.com
web: www.septembergurl.com
Influences
Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, The Clash, The Pogues, AC/DC, Lucinda Williams, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, Woody Guthrie, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, The Sex Pistols, Joe Ely, Townes Van Zandt, Iris DeMent, The Ramones, The Cars, Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Neko Case, Roger Miller, The Flaming Lips, Butthole Surfers, Beethoven, Bach, Terry Allen, The Violent Femmes, Leonard Cohen, The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Enya, Robert Earl Keen, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Billy Joe Shaver, They Might Be Giants, Doc Watson, The Flatlanders, Plethyn, Abba (don't tell anyone!), The Meatmen, The Meat Puppets, Dead Milkmen, Bob Dylan and a million I'm forgetting.
Sounds Like
"When I finally heard Colin play live, I was blown away. His songs are well written and vocal delivery is right on...totally believable. Plus, he plays good guitar. Colin will be around the music scene for a long time.
-Lloyd Maines
"Austin musicians can still be found at SXSW, and one of my favorites is Colin Gilmore. His music is just so likeable and easy to listen to. He's a clever lyricist, but not so clever that you get annoyed. He's also that rare songwriter who knows that good lyrics need a melody to match it. Otherwise, how is a song going to get stuck in your head all day? There's a rockabilly element to his music that I like, too, and he has fun up there, too. It's amazing to me how many musicians frown through their whole set, acting like it's the hardest job in the world. I know SXSW is a tough crowd, but come on, live a little."
-Craig Shelburne- CMT, under a column "Six Bands Worth Checking Out From SXSW"
"A West Texas Nick Lowe"- Sylvie Simmons, Mojo Magazine
Austin singer-songwriter Colin Gilmore is building his reputation the old-fashioned way: hard work and imagination. He and his new wife’s idea of the perfect honeymoon was a tour of Japan, where he played eight cities in 10 days, complete with a different backing band at each gig. He has recently toured the west coast, played the Old Town Art Fair in Chicago, and played an online interactive concert at Mike Nesmith’s Videoranch. The Flatlanders included Gilmore’s song “The Way We Are” on their latest album Hills and Valleys. It quickly became the album's number one selling song on iTunes.
“I’m getting out there and doing it,” says Gilmore, who was invited not long ago to open for pals Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines, two Grammy-winning members of Austin’s musical royalty, at the Columbus (Ohio) Performing Arts Center. He was particularly thrilled with the reception he got at a song swap with a few other Austin notables: Ruthie Foster and Grammy winners Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel) and Joel Guzman (Los Super Seven, etc.). “I was playing with some of my musical idols but I felt like I was in my element and made a real connection with the crowd,” he recalls.
Gilmore’s self-described blend of “West Texas-style rock, with a country/punk/psychedelic/pop edge,” is also earning him a fan base – and airplay – in California (including KPIG-FM, no less), where he had a blast playing camp ground radio broadcasts at the Strawberry Music Festival in Yosemite and made more than 15,000 new fans at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco (they loved “The You That I Knew”). He shared the bill at that event – and toured the country – with yet another Austin musical blueblood: his father, Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
“I don’t capitalize on his name, but he is my dad,” says Gilmore. “I’m happy to be his son and I feel very fortunate. But fans won’t stick around for music that doesn’t speak to them. You have to earn it every day. ”
Gilmore was born and raised in the musically rich town of Lubbock, where he was influenced by family friends Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, as well as Terry Allen and the late Jesse Taylor. (Allen’s son, Bukka, played on Gilmore’s debut album, The Day the World Stopped and Spun the Other Way.) But it was his mother, singer Debbie Fields, who really encouraged his early musical development. His step-dad, fiddler Richard Bowden, also had an influence. And so, of course, did Buddy Holly, the Lubbock legend whose rockabilly spirit has infused Gilmore’s sound. You can hear Holly’s impact (and that of other Texas troubadours – and Tornadoes) in Gilmore’s “Laughing Hard or Crying?” and “Time to Fly Away Again.”
But that aforementioned edge was sharpened by other influences: the Clash, the Ramones, the Pogues, the Sex Pistols. (You could easily pick him out in his high school choir photo. Just look for the Mohawk.) Somewhere along the way, he also discovered Lucinda Williams. And Johnny Cash. And Leonard Cohen. Not to mention Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, the guys Gilmore studied while minoring in classical music (and majoring in anthropology) at Texas State University.
A more recent influence is Bay Area producer Scott Mathews, an industry legend whose resume includes the names Clapton, Jagger, Richards, Orbison, Costello, Hiatt, Santana, Joey Ramone and Brian Wilson. After a phone conversation, Gilmore sent Matthews his first recording, an EP titled Four of No Kind. Matthews liked what he heard and invited Gilmore to visit so they could try writing and recording together.
“I flew up there and in three working days we co-wrote and recorded three songs, playing everything ourselves,” Gilmore says. They co-produced an EP, Black Wine, for the Japan tour, and plan to work together again soon. (Raves Matthews: “The world doesn't need yet another singer-songwriter – it needs Colin Gilmore. In my world, he's the one.”)
Gilmore has also written with Nashville’s Jon Tiven, who has produced Wilson Pickett, B.B. King and the Pixies’ Frank Black; and has written hits for Robert Cray and Buddy Guy. Gilmore’s song, an homage to his uncle Allen, who died the same day as Johnny Cash, is titled “Raindrops in July.” Willie Nelson’s A&R rep thought it would be perfect for him (So do we. Are you listening, Willie?).
But, hey, he knows better than to be in a hurry.
“I’m not set on instant success,” says Gilmore. “I’m in it for the long haul. I’m fortunate I got to hear from a very early age what real, heartfelt, good music was.”
Fortunately for us, Colin’s now making his own.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest in San Francisco:
Live at the Horseshoe:
Live on Fearless Radio in Chicago:
Hey, Im posting new videos today! New pictures too!
And TUESDAY July 14, the band will be filming a performance for the tv show at SAXON PUB! Be in the audience for the tv show 4:30 to 6!!!!!!!! Ruby Jane
Hey Colin! I think I speak for all of Northern California when I say I MISS YOU MAN! Hope all's well in TX. Say hi to Billy and Tammy. Much love, Evangeline
Thank you so much Colin for honoring us with your precious friendship.... We hope that you have are having a wonderful evening and that the adventures of your Life feel like a ride on the mystery train of Pure Joy.....Thanks again....
Hello, it's me, Ruby Jane. I am a 14 year old fiddler, songwriter. I have some songs posted that are fresh out of the studio.. Let me know if you like the new songs..be one of the first to hear, even before they are released!Thanks! and I've got new videos too!! Ruby Jane
I really appreciate your friendship and ALL your awesome support! We've been very fortunate to have just passed 38,000 MySpace friends, over 473,000 page views, over 404,000 song plays and YOU'VE HELPED MAKE THIS POSSIBLE. I'd be ever so grateful if you could bulletin your friends and ask them to add us too. THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!!
Yo Colin and Billy! Thanks so much for the awesome show at Evangeline's last week! You have some big fans around these parts my friends! Your tweener at Strawberry was great too...it was so fun to see you up there! Thanks again for that nice gesture before the Flatlanders show...what a pleasure for me. Great to meet Tammy too! Love to you both...safe road and please come on back soon! XO, Evangeline
Thanks so much for an awesome show at Slim's - we had the best time! (and yes, you WERE in California!) Please don't wait too long for a return visit :D
hope to see you at the steamboat reunion show on june14th at threadgills. and maybe you would like to play one in the future if your interested. your friend, danny crooks
we are on our way back to TX after a GREAT West Coast run that wraps up on Sat May 2nd at the Scoot Inn in East Austin w/ our good friends the Mother Truckers...c'mon down!
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