Although I lived in Texas, the first time I heard Jimmie Dale Gilmore's voice and sweet Texas guitar was riding among friends after a hike near Mount Baker in the state of Washington. 'You gotta hear this' we were told as we bounced around the vehicle and here was this distinctive, pure and sweet whining voice that seemed to fit right in the beauty of the vistas of the Cascade Mountains. There he was, singing 'My Mind's Got a Mind of Its Own'. What was this? It was new, and it was very old, taking us back to early Texas music. We got home, and had to get some of our own - a cassette tape whose title was the same as his name. It got played over and over and over.

We managed to hear him perform a couple of times, once at the University of Texas Cactus Cafe, and once at Deep Eddy, an Austin spring-fed swimming pool just off the Colorado River, shaded by great cottonwood trees. Here was a musician characterized by a deep-rooted calm; he seemed no more egotistical than the trees.