This we like, the song of course, but also this part of the story behind the release of this new single by Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore – ‘Borderland’ was recorded on the duo’s day off during a Texas tour run in January of this year at The Zone Studio in Dripping Springs, Texas. Yup, into the studio and lay down a great track on your day off. That is the way it should be. So, of course there’s a real live feel to ‘Borderland’ which after a menacing rumbling introduction has such a great opening line “Well I headed back to the Borderland when the home guard went insane / No use trying to work with people who can’t tell fire from rain.”
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who co-wrote the song with David Hammond, explains some of the thnking behind the song: “The Big Bend of the Rio Grande River, which in Mexico is called Rio Bravo Del Norte, is one of the most magnificent geographical features of our world. It is a vast, rugged, and beautiful landscape that holds a mysterious attraction for some people. It is the borderland between two cultures, two countries, and, in a way, at least two contrasting worldviews. My wife and I have spent as much time there as possible for many years, and this song is an attempt to evoke a feeling of the place. A strange sense of something deeply familiar and yet, at the same time, completely alien. Maybe all true love songs are made of something like this.”
