Texas singer makes success of Austin to Acadia Connection

NORTHEAST HARBOR — When Jimmie Dale Gilmore sings songs of the border, Jerry Z. Coty is right there with him.

Fort Fairfield native Coty was one of 200 devotees of the Texas songman-mystic who packed Neighborhood House on Saturday night to hear Gilmore give a solo performance filled with songs of life along the Rio Grande country between Texas and Mexico.

Maine is also a border state. Its rivers are the St. John, the St. Croix and the Aroostook, which runs right down Fort Fairfield’s Main Street. The spiritual connection between Maine and Texas was pointed out by Gilmore after the show.

“I always thought of Maine as a foggy, lighthouse kind of place, but it’s on the border too,” observed Gilmore. “In a way, it resembles Texas, not the country, but the friendliness of the people. The hospitality and the kindhearted reception we’ve had makes it feel like home.”

Gilmore was lured to Maine by Dr. Les Haynes, a physician from Bar Harbor, through what has become known as the “Austin to Acadia Connection.” Haynes offered Glimore and his family a week’s stay at his Salisbury Cove home in return for a performance. Hayes was buoyed by the show’s success and the sellout crowd Gilmore attracted. He hopes to make the Austin to Acadia Connection an annual event and has plans to bring another legendary Texas singer-songwriter and Gilmore buddy, Butch Hancock, to Maine this fall.

From the moment Gilmore walked on stage with his blond Gibson guitar, the crowd was his. His haunting West Texas voice enphasized the agony and beauty of his songs. Well-crafted with modulations from major to minor chords, Gilmore’s musical stories of love and loss may be universal, but his voice gives them a plaintive tone. One can picture the wind off the plains when Gilmore sings.

Along with his original tunes, Gilmore also worked in a few by Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. His version of Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” had his audience applauding enthusiastically. During his two-hour set, Gilmore played songs from his 1993 album, “Spinning Around the Sun,” as well as others from his soon-to-be-released “Braver Newer World” on Electra Records.

“I think I have a base of fans in the country world who share the same love of country music that I do,” he explained. “But folk and blues and rock ‘n’ roll are also an actual, legitimate part of what I do, not just an afterthought I tacked on.”

One of those longtime fans is Coty. He had a seat in the front row and visited with Gilmore backstage after the show. They talked of music, and Gilmore autographed copies of cassettes that Coty brought to the concert. Coty said he’d been listening to Gilmore since the early 1990s when a friend gave him a copy of an earlier Gilmore album, “After Awhile.”

Gilmore is also known for his attachment to Oriental philosphy, and like-minded fans were on hand. Dan and Tyrell Laurie were married at Bar Harbor Saturday afternoon and spent part of their honeymoon at the concert. The Lauries lived in Austin, Texas, for a time and knew Gilmore from there. The singer dedicated Ernest Tubb’s “Waltz Across Texas” to the happy couple, as they waltzed across the stage.