The Flatlanders Release First New Album in 12 Years 'Treasure of Love'

Today, The Flatlanders, the iconic Texas-based trio of Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, released Treasure of Love via Rack 'Em Records / Thirty Tigers. The album marks their first collection of newly recorded music in more than 12 years and was completed during the COVID-19 lockdown with the assistance of multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Maines, who co-produced the album alongside Ely.

In their 5-star review, The Austin Chronicle called the album, "Perfect in vision, voice, harmony - not to mention timing - Treasure of Love delivers quintessential Flatlanders." The Associated Press called the collection "fresh and relevant" and said, "Listening to The Flatlanders' Treasure of Love is like strolling into a corner honky-tonk and discovering an old friend on the next barstool" while Texas Monthly proclaimed, "...as the songs on Treasure of Love readily affirm, the magic-now going on nearly fifty years strong-continues."

Treasure of Love announced with the album's first single "Sittin' On Top of the World," a song they've been performing for more than 50 years and a notable show closer for the band. It was embraced by American Songwriter, Rolling Stone, and more. It was followed by "She Belongs To Me," a stately and "jauntier" (The Boot) rendition of the Bob Dylan classic that splits the difference between Greenwich Village and Galveston, and "Moanin' of the Midnight Train," one of the group's originals featured on the album.

The 15 tracks on Treasure of Love revisit songs they enjoyed playing from the early days and capturing them for the sheer joy of it. Not realizing at the time that they were actually making a record, the trio worked fast and loose in the studio, laying down raw, playful takes whenever they had free time between sessions or tours. It was only when the COVID-19 pandemic forced Ely, Gilmore, and Hancock to simultaneously clear all of their calendars that the band realized they had an album on their hands and the time to finally complete it.

Treasure of Love Tracklist:

01) Moanin' Of The Midnight Train

02) Long Time Gone

03) Snowin' On Raton

04) She Smiles Like A River

05) Love Oh Love Please Come Home

06) Give My Love to Rose

07) Treasure of Love

08) Satin Shoes

09) The Ballad of Honest Sam

10) Mama Do the Kangaroo

11) She Belongs to Me

12) I Don't Blame You

13) Mobile Blues

14) Ramblin' Man

15) Sittin' On Top of the World

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