Jimmie Dale Gilmore

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's roots extend deep into the Texas Panhandle, through Webb Pierce and Lefty Frizzell. Born in 1945, he grew up on the big watt stations -- Brenda Lee, Little Richard, Elvis and the Beatles -- instilled a diversity that's still very much a part of his musical makeup.

He refers to himself as a folk musician, but he cites the radio as his main influence. "I didn't just hear the fiddle player down the road," he says. "My matrix was the radio, so I have a true love for the traditional as well as an openness to strange innovation."

Although he was selected country Artist of the Year in the 1991 and 1992 in Rolling Stone Critics Polls, he doesn't care to be branded with one label. He is better-described as synthesizing country, blues and rock, and has also been found straying into a grunge EP with Seattle's Mudhoney.