The windy, expansive universe of West Texas around the town of Lubbock is distilled from just two elements: the land and the sky. In this most unadorned of landscapes, sunlight and shadow charge the Plains and the overarching sky with improbably transcendental power. This is the panorama that gave rise to the music of The Flatlanders. Today, the three prime component members of The Flatlanders, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmoreand Butch Hancock--are better known as individual singer-songwriters. But The Flatlanders was the breeding ground for three extraordinary bodies of work, and the pull which the band continues to exert on both its alumni and its fans, remains strong today. After a long journey that brought them together and pulled them apart, the music world came abuzz in 1997 when the trio seemingly reunited to contribute music to the motion picture The Horse Whisperer. A reunion concert soon followed and the trio rediscovered how much they enjoyed working together. "And it was like," explained Ely, "let's do this more often." So they did. Their New West Records debut, Now Again, with its dualistic title that looks both forward and back, is not a definitive summation of the life's work of The Flatllanders. It is, however, a new turn of the wheel for three of Texas' most inspirational singer/songwriters, and a welcome treat for all of their fans.

Sixteen tracks broadcast live on Texas radio stations in 1954 and 1955. With muffled (though listenable) fidelity, this is more of a historical document than a sampling of King at his best; it also finds him and his group much more grounded in hot Western swing (complete with steel guitar) than rock & roll. As an archival glimpse of the first stirrings of hillbilly turning into rockabilly, though, it's not bad. The group runs through the country boogies and ballads with zesty, unpolished flair, and edge close to rockabilly with their covers of "That's All Right," "Maybellene," and "Flip, Flop & Fly." ~ Richie Unterberger

This twofer from British reissue label Beat Goes On brings together a pair of excellent Patsy Cline albums--A TRIBUTE TO PATSY CLINE and A PORTRAIT OF PATSY CLINE--on one disc. Both albums were released posthumously shortly after Cline's death in a plane crash in 1963. Among the standout tracks are the perennial classic "Crazy," a lovely version of the standard "Faded Love," an up-beat takes on "Back in Baby's Arms," and a slinky, nearly rhumba-like version of Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky." While the quality of Cline's voice is on full display here, the set also offers proof of the legendary singer's often overlooked stylistic versatility.