JOE ELY
"He sings of distance, about rivers and ranches, of smoldering
passions and sad laments, of faraway longing and unrequited love."
by Joe Nick Patoski
Everybody else romances the road. Joe Ely lives it. Call him what you
want - a wandering minstrel, gypsy cowboy, visionary song poet, or houserocker
on fire - whatever he is, Ely's covered a lot of ground in his time. He
really has ridden the rails (in a circus train, no less), thumbed his way
across the country, hopped boats to exotic foreign lands, and ridden horses
across the prairie. All part of the relentless quest for revelation that
only a journey can satisfy.
Those sort of restless yearnings come naturally to a boy from Lubbock, Texas,
where the flat dusty landscape, endless sky and vast horizons have inspired
several generations of young creative types to fill up all that empty space
with music, as Buddy Holly did, as did Waylon Jennings, and Roy Orbison
all the way to the current Lubbock Mob consisting of Ely and his compadres
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, and Terry Allen. Like them, Joe Ely
has proved to himself before he proved to a growing number of faithful that
when it comes to the mystical process of writing, singing, and performing
music, there's no pretending or holding back. Where he comes from, you put
your emotions ofn the line each and every night.
That
That upbringing led Joe Ely to roam the earth and preach the gospel of the
Roadhouse, extolling the virtues of the nowhere-else-but-Texas pressure
cooker enviornment where hard core country and the rawest kind of rock and
roll collide on the dancefloor every Saturday night.
The first milestone was a band called the Flatlanders, formed in Lubbock
more than twenty years ago by Ely, Hancock and Gilmore. Their visionary
melding of country, rock, and fold immediately pegged them as three singer-
songwriters who were ahead of their time and way too experimental for Nashville.
Next came the Joe Ely Band, Joe's own ensemble who once again mixed country
and rock elements into something new and completely different, proving to
anyone that heard them that an accordion or pedal steel guitar really could
pack the same sonic punch as an electric guitar. In England, the Panhandle
poets and his pickers were embraced by the Clash, the standard bearers of
the nascent punk movement, who might not have shared the same cultural values
as the West Texans, but who certainly knew integrity when they heard it.
Since then, Ely has gained the respect of his friends and his peers, including
such kindred spirits as Bruce Springsteen, who contributes vocals on his
latest album, along with old friend Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and new friend
Raul Malo of the Mavericks.
Whatever qualities grabbed their attention, Joe Ely remains a Texas origional.
In Austin, where he now lives and works, a body of work that spans thirteen
albums and his willingness to put it all on the line each and every night
have rightfully accorded him status akin to royalty.
But no matter how virtuous those qualities and associations seem in retrospect,
and no matter how illustrious his performing and recording career may be,
all the accomplishments and accolades suddenly seem like mere preludes that
have been building up to Letter to Laredo. On this collections of songs,
Joe Ely simply sets out to demonstrate what all the fuss is about.
He sings of distance, about rivers and ranches, of smoldering passions and
sad laments, of faraway longing and unrequited love. He sings of journeys
that take him from the High Plains of West Texas to dark and mysterious
flamenco bars in Spanish Andalusia, where Arab, African, and European influences
commingle. And more than once he can be seen and heard chasing hearts and
souls south across the Rio Grande.
The voice is that of a man who speaks fluently the patois of honky tonks
and jook joints, who can hold an audience around a campfire riveted untill
the break of dawn, or inspire a crowd of thousands to kick up their bootheels
in a two-step or a stomp. It's a voice that can converse with a pistolero
as directly as it conveys intimacy to a lover, or articulates that high
lonesome feeling known to everyone who has ever hurt. So pull up a chair,
cut a rug, or hit the highway. Listener's choice. The songs that Joe Ely
sings are the stuff that make anyone's journey something worth remembering.
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