Jimmie Dale Gilmore's 1991 album After Awhile was quite literally the work of a lifetime, collecting songs written over a span of 20 years by a reedy-voiced Texan equally influenced by the sounds of country, folk and early rock & roll. Recorded as part of Elektra's American Explorer series, the album collected enough raves to win the middle-aged maverick a contract of his own, and some worried when Gilmore took his fatter recording budget to Nashville. But while Spinning Around the Sun certainly boasts the instrumental trappings of classic country, the virtuoso sheen of its steel guitars and string-band adornments doesn't prevent Gilmore from continuing to define his own musical turf.

Gilmore is not a prolific writer, so the initial challenge of his new album was finding songs that matched the adventurousness of his own compositions. He found these among the work of his songwriting peers in Austin, a town that has a long tradition of mixing traditional styles with distinctive verbal touches. Two of the album's best tunes are by Butch Hancock, who in the early '70s played in a band called the Flatlanders with Gilmore and Joe Ely. Hancock's "Just a Wave" is a highlight of Spinning Around the Sun, with lyrics that amount to a Zen revelation: "But she knew more than I had taught her/When she said, 'Babe, you're just a wave, you're not the water.'"

The styles that are mixed within Gilmore's repertoire are clearly defined by the inclusion of three of his old favorites: the bluegrass blues of "Mobile Line (France Blues)," the city-boy blues of Elvis Presley's "I Was the One" and the aching country lament of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry." That none of these versions qualify as definitive is not the point; they complement the other songs, pointing to the common veins that run through country, blues and rock & roll.

Lucinda Williams joins Gilmore for a lovely duet on "Reunion," a song that tells of a couple going their separate ways in the most romantic of terms. "Reunion" sets the table for three of Gilmore's own musical looks at romance: "I'm Gonna Love You," a declaration of devotion to a friend; "Another Colorado," in which the hero recalls his first taste of true love's ways; and "Thinking About You," wherein everything from a mockingbird's song to a ship's sails evokes memories of a loved one.

Gilmore doesn't define his lover – it could just as well be a spiritual figure as a romantic partner – and the steel guitar that emits a lonesome sigh at the end of "Thinking About You" is likely to leave listeners lost in their own private thoughts and memories. This emotional intimacy, Gilmore knows, is at the heart of the best music, whatever the genre. And on Spinning Around the Sun, it's the soulful result of a distinctive singer singing distinguished songs. (RS 667)

JOHN MILWARD