Joe Ely
(born February 9, 1947 in Amarillo, Texas) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist whose music touches on honky-tonk, country and rock and roll.
He has had a genre-crossing career, performing with Bruce Springsteen, Uncle Tupelo, Los Super Seven, The Clancy Brothers and James McMurtry in addition to his early work with The Clash and more recent acoustic tours with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Guy Clark.
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JOE ELY TICKETS
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Biography
Early life and career
Ely spent his formative years from age 12 in
Lubbock, Texas.
Shortly after attending
Lubbock High School, in 1970, with fellow Lubbock musicians
Jimmie Dale Gilmore and
Butch Hancock, he formed
The Flatlanders. According to Ely, "Jimmie [Gilmore] was like a well of country music. He knew everything about it. And Butch was from the folk world. I was kinda the rock & roll guy, and we almost had a triad. We hit it off and started playing a lot together. That opened up a whole new world I had never known existed."
In 1972, the band released their first and— until 2002's
Now Again
— only album, but have appeared together on each other's albums. Since the band's initial break-up just after their first album was cut, the three musicians have followed individual paths.
Solo career
Ely's own
first, self titled album, was released in 1977.
The following year, his band played
London, where he met
punk rock group
The Clash. Impressed with each other's performances, the two bands would later tour together, including appearances in Ely's hometown of Lubbock, as well as
Laredo and
Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, across the border from
El Paso, Texas. Ely would contribute backing vocals on the Clash single "
Should I Stay or Should I Go?" from
Combat Rock
(1982), and Ely's
Live Shots
includes photos of Clash member
Joe Strummer performing as a guest with Ely's band.
Throughout his career, Ely has issued a steady stream of albums, most on the
MCA label. Ely's energetic live performances have become legendary, and he has released a live album roughly every ten years (the last was
LIVE Cactus
in 2008).
In the late 1990s Ely was asked to write songs for the soundtrack of
Robert Redford's movie
The Horse Whisperer, which led to re-forming
The Flatlanders with Gilmore and Hancock. A new album from the trio followed in 2002, with a third in 2004.
In February 2007, Ely released
Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch
on his own label, Rack 'Em Records. Ely said in an interview with
Country Standard Time that he thought it would be easier to release the material on his own label instead of dealing with a regular record label and their release cycles. A book of Ely's writings,
Bonfire of Roadmaps
, was published in early 2007 by the
University of Texas Press. In early 2008, Ely released a new live album featuring
Joel Guzman on
accordion recorded at the Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas late 2006.
The
Flatlanders released their newest album "Hills and Valleys" on March 31, 2009.
Discography
Albums
Year
| Album
| Chart Positions
| Label
|
US Country
| US
|
1977
| Joe Ely
|
|
| MCA
|
1978
| Honky Tonk Masquerade
|
|
|
1979
| Down on the Drag
|
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1980
| Live Shots
|
| 159
|
1981
| Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
|
| 135
|
1984
| Hi-Res
|
|
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1987
| Lord of the Highway
|
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| Hightone
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1988
| Dig All Night
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|
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Milkshakes and Malts
|
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| Sunstorm
|
What Ever Happened to Maria
|
|
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1990
| Live at Liberty Lunch
| 57
|
| MCA
|
1993
| Love and Danger
|
|
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1995
| Chippy
|
|
| Hollywood
|
Letter to Laredo
| 68
|
| MCA
|
1998
| Live at Cambridge
|
|
| Strange Fruit
|
Twistin' in the Wind
| 55
|
| MCA
|
2000
| Live @ Antones
| 66
|
| Antones
|
2003
| Streets of Sin
| 51
|
| Rounder
|
Ten in Texas
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| Icehouse
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2007
| Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch
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| Rack 'Em Records
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Silver City
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2008
| LIVE Cactus!
(with Joel Guzmán)
|
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Singles
Year
| Single
| Chart Positions
| Album
|
US Country
| US MSR
|
1977
| "All My Love"
| 89
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| Joe Ely
|
1981
| "Musta Notta Gotta Lotta"
|
| 40
| Musta Notta Gotta Lotta
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See also
- The Flatlanders
- Los Super Seven
- Music of Austin
References