This from Guess I’m Dumb | JAMES TALLEY - Calico Gypsy [40 years of work]

• Track Name

  Calico Gypsy

• Album

  Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love

• Artist

  James Talley

James Talley - Calico Gypsy

James Talley is a country music singer-songwriter who has been releasing albums for 40 years. My memories of him are based on his Capitol albums from the mid-70s, especially his first, Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love. “Calico Gypsy” is a song of West Texas memories, encapsuling his influences and charms. The instrumentation starts with guitar, bass and simple percussion, then successively adds piano, fiddle, trumpets and pedal steel guitar. Sounds ornate, but it seems very natural as it evokes Western Swing and Tejano styles. His memories are expressed as images of nature such as, “Bright as a midnight moon on the snow”.

The song is like a refreshing walk in a gentle rain.

James Talley - Calico Gypsy (1975)

I’d never heard of Texas country singer-songwriter James Talley until I noticed that he’s written Give My Love to Marie, on Gene Clark’s 1977 LP Two Sides to Every Story. That led me to this wonderful, evocative song, well described above.

All of my dreams, unbroken and free