The July edition of Sings Like Hell was an evening of slinky licks, great songs, a little nostalgia and a lot of what is now called “Americana” music. Headlining that night were Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Bill Kirchen. Gilmore, a founder of The Flatlanders with Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, which arguably kicked off progressive alt-country in 1972, made his third appearance for SLH. Bill Kirchen, a founding member of Commander Cody’s Lost Planet Airmen, has been a driving force in what was dubbed “outlaw”country (along with Willie and Waylon) and “twangcore.” His distinctive telecaster playing is the essence of twang and takes inventive and surprising melodic turns, mixing rock ‘n roll, boogie-woogie, a little jazz and hard country, all with fiery conviction and prodigious prowess. It was a perfect matchup as the two traded songs and Kirchen moved everything along sounding like a whole band. Opening the show were two men with great musical geneology, Jimmy Dale’s son Colin Gilmore and Happy Traum’s son Adam. They played an enthusiastically received set, also trading off songs, playing great guitar and singing harmonies together with obvious joy. During the second half of the show, Jimmy Dale and Bill were joined first by Kirchen’s wife Louise and then by Colin. BTW, this was Colin’s second appearance on the Lobero stage – he joined his father for a couple of songs in Series #7, Fall 2000.
