Jimmie Dale Gilmore´s third Elektra album comes as a corrective of sorts to fellow ex-Flatlander Joe Ely´s ambitious but disappointing Letter to Laredo. While Braver Newer World doesn´t quite cohere like Gilmore´s brilliant 1991 disc After Awhile, its risks generally pay off. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the disc initially seems to indicate a full-scale embrace of hippie-ism that´s perfectly in tune with Gilmore´s Zen-country leanings. Sitars twang, French horns evoke sticky pop psychedelia, and the artist revives as best he can a painfully earnest folksong "Sally," by Texas pal A.B. Strehli. Gilmore´s Buddhism reaches full flower here on the title cut and a Strehli ballad, "Come Fly Away," making interesting implications about his collaboration with Burnett, one of rock´s most famous drunken seekers. Burnett´s wife Sam Phillips contributes one of the best songs here, "Where Is Love Now," which in turn g