Joe Ely Albums (15)
'Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch'
Release Date 2/6/2007
Tracks 11
Label Cbuj Ent
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The week of his 60th birthday, Joe Ely released Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch, his 12th album of new studio material in 30 years, to launch his own Rack 'Em Records label. A subtitle printed in three places on the packaging read "Pearls from the Vault, Volume XX," and that may have meant to suggest that the album was a collection of archival recordings, a suggestion that the multiple backup musicians appearing on different tracks (five guitarists, for instance, including Ely) might support, although there was no further information to illuminate the matter. In any case, the disc was Ely's first since 2003, and it consisted of previously unreleased tracks that had the feel of a diversified, coherent album. In fact, Happy Songs from Rattlesnake Gulch was a fairly typical Ely album full of guitar-driven, country-inflected blues-rock with a Southwestern sensibility, ranging from the neo-rockabilly of "Sue Me Sue" to the Cajun arrangement of "Little Blossom" and the electric blues of "July Blues." As usual, the locales were spread along the Gulf Coast and points west -- New Orleans, Evangeline, Shreveport, Dallas, Clovis -- and the characters in the story-songs included roughnecks, gamblers, and outlaws. In his most ambitious lyric, Ely created a sequel to his earlier "Me and Billy the Kid" with another fantasy set to the same tune, "Miss Bonnie and Mr. Clyde." He also touched on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in "Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes." But the lyrics were less important than the feel and the performance, especially because Ely wrote nearly all the songs this time. The one exception, a de rigueur contribution from Butch Hancock, "Firewater" (the title song from his 1981 album), was so full of wordplay it showed up the rest of the disc. It may also be the only track on the album worthy of being included on a future Ely best-of, however. This is not one of his best albums, just a good one. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Texas singer/songwriters tend to be a hardy breed, and Joe Ely is no exception; more than 25 years after he released his first album, the man remains a potent honky tonk poet following his own muse. Streets of Sin, his first studio set in five years, finds him paring back his sound much as he did on Letter to Laredo (though with a subtle but strong electric edge and a willingness to periodically up the tempo), for a collection of songs about people struggling along life's margins -- a family struggling to hold together a failing farm ("All That You Need"), a veteran carny drifting from show to show ("Carnival Bum"), a gambler desperate for a winning bet on a horse ("Run Little Pony"), and the people of a small town desperate to beat their retreat before a flood swallows their homes ("A Flood on Our Hands"). With the exception of two songs from Ely's gifted friend Butch Hancock, Ely wrote all of the material on Streets of Sin, and the disc has a thematic unity and musical consistency that's confident and compelling in its tightrope walk between emotional strength and the fear that collapse lurks around the corner. While it's a smart and ambitious album, Streets of Sin also finds Ely occasionally repeating himself and treading water in territories he's explored with more energy and fresher vision in the past. But while this isn't quite top-shelf Joe Ely, it still captures a superb singer and songwriter doing his work and doing it well, and if it isn't a masterpiece, anyone who has found something special in his work in the past will find some moments to revel in on Streets of Sin. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Live at Antone's is Joe Ely's third release mixing his rock, country, folk, and Tex-Mex-fueled live show for an appreciative Texas audience. This retrospective was recorded by the Rounder label January 22 and 23, 1999, and showcases the heartfelt romanticism and storytelling on compositions by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Tom Russell, Butch Hancock, Robert Earl Keen, Utah Phillips, and Ely. Pedal steel guitarist Lloyd Maines and the accordion of Joel Guzman add extra spice to this already high-energy performance. Favorites like "The Road Goes on Forever," "Me and Billy the Kid," "Dallas," "Road Hawg," and the obligatory Buddy Holly cover "Oh! Boy" are featured on another recommended Joe Ely live set. ~ Al Campbell, All Music Guide
'Twistin' in the Wind'
Release Date 4/6/1998
Tracks 12
Label MCA Nashville
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Joe Ely, like fellow Texans Billy Joe Shaver, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, is pure originality. An artist whom other artist seek to emulate, he never disappoints. With this release, Ely continues his wild ride into the heart and soul of a man and the landscape he inhabits. Effective as a songwriter and performer, Joe Ely became more potent with each passing year. His diversity buoys him up as he works his way through both the dark and the light. The title cut, "Up on the Ridge," and "You're Workin' for the Man" display his ability to cast a deep shadow upon life's more rugged passages. "Sister Soak the Beans" and "If I Could Teach My Chihuahua to Sing" are light and humorous, reflective of Ely's geography, Texas, and create a balance that too few artists ever find. With "Gulf Coast Blues" and a wonderful honky tonk concerto, "I Will Lose My Life," Ely proves to be a master painter who creates his songs from a vast palette of colors, textures, and experiences. ~ Jana Pendragon, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
While Joe Ely had been making good to great albums since his 1977 self-titled debut, 1995's Letter to Laredo was one of the most striking and ambitious projects of his career, and was clearly an effort to raise the creative ante on his earlier work. While Ely's trademark had always been a heady mixture of honky tonk country and roadhouse rock & roll, with Letter to Laredo he aimed to generate the same passion and emotional fire but with a (primarily) acoustic ensemble backing him up, while also striving for a more literate and mature tone than he'd brought to albums like Dig All Night and Musta Notta Gotta Lotta. If the results didn't sound like a typical Joe Ely album, Letter to Laredo isn't as atypical as the surfaces might suggest; the sophisticated storytelling Ely indulges in here is only a step or two removed from his best work up to this point (more a matter of tone and emphasis than a radically different lyrical perspective), and the strength of "All Just to Get to You," "Run Preciosa," and " "I'm a Thousand Miles from Home" is in the details of his characters and their lives, not unlike "Honky Tonk Masquerade," and "Because of the Wind" and "Saint Valentine" show he hadn't lost his sense of humor or way with a shaggy dog story. Musically, Letter to Laredo is dominated by Teye's acoustic flamenco guitar, which adds a wealth of color and drama to the songs, but drummer Davis McLarty and bassist Glenn Fukunaga put a steady fire behind the musicians, and David Grissom and Lloyd Maines add some superb six-string accents of their own; despite the lack of amps, this sounds as full and strong as anything Ely ever cut. And Ely's vocals are splendidly nuanced, with some fine assistance from guests Bruce Springsteen, Raul Malo, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Joe Ely seemed to been aiming for a masterpiece with Letter to Laredo, and that isn't quite what he got, but he did create a great album that gently altered his audience's expectations of what he could accomplish in the studio, and it's an impressive and moving disc. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Despite some great songs, notably Dave Alvin's "Every Night About This Time" and Robert Earl Keen's modern-day western "Whenever Kindness Fails," Love and Danger rocks hard but never finds its groove. ~ Brian Mansfield, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The standard-issue live album usually works as a "greatest-hits" disc with some crowd noise in the background, but since Joe Ely has never been blessed with hit records in the traditional sense, for 1990's Live at Liberty Lunch he was able to pull from the cream of his catalog rather than playing favorites, and thanks to his well-documented strength as a live performer, he was able to turn all 13 numbers into crowd-pleasers no matter how well (or little) known they were. Recorded during a two-night stand at the fabled Austin, TX venue, Live at Liberty Lunch lacks the fire and intensity of Ely's superb 1980 concert set Live Shots, but the ten years that separate the two albums isn't all to Live at Liberty Lunch's disadvantage. While the earlier album may have drawn most of its songs from three of Ely's best albums, here he's able to rescue some superb songs that got lost in the shuffle ("Cool Rockin' Loretta" and "She Gotta Get the Gettin'" prove there was some fine material on Hi-Res despite the wrong-headed production), and the otherwise unavailable "Drivin' to the Poorhouse in a Limousine" is one of Ely's best rockers. Ely's band is in sterling form here (especially David Grissom on guitar and Davis McLarty on drums), and if the tone of this album is more mature and subdued than the raucous Live Shots, Ely is more than up to the challenge of making the songs communicate, and from the first verse of "Me and Billy the Kid," he has the audience in the palm of his hand. In short, this preserves a truly gifted writer and performer having a great night in front of an appreciative audience in his hometown, and in this case, that's the formula for a superior live disc. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Joe Ely took three years between the release of his fourth studio album, Musta Notta Gotta Lotta (1981) and his fifth, Hi-Res (1984), then another three between that and his sixth, Lord of the Highway (1987), after putting out his first four in five years (1977-1981). His seventh studio album, Dig All Night, reverted to the old pace, following Lord of the Highway by only 15 months, and unlike his usual practice, it consisted entirely of his own compositions (the title song was co-written by Mitch Watkins); no covers of songs by his friends Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. It would be easy to suppose that the album consisted of trunk songs, however, since it presents Ely as a sturdy songwriting craftsman, but has little of the idiosyncratic imagination that sparks his best writing (e.g., "Me and Billy the Kid" from Lord of the Highway). There's nothing wrong with these songs (and some proved to be valuable copyrights when covered by others, such as Chris LeDoux, who took "For Your Love" into the country charts five years later). It's just that they aren't all that distinctive compared with earlier efforts. Musically, Ely, who for once does not play guitar on the album, leaving that entirely to David Grissom, is moving very much toward the mainstream Heartland rock of John Mellencamp and Tom Petty, notably on such tracks as "Dig All Night." He also recalls the style of the Rolling Stones on "Grandfather Blues" and "I Didn't Even Do It." The Tex-Mex death ballad "Behind the Bamboo Shade" retains some of the flavor of his earlier work. But much of this is the sort of music that, if marketed properly, could appeal to a wide swath of classic rock fans. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Lord of the Highway, Joe Ely's sixth studio album, is something of a return to form for him, in both qualitative and stylistic senses. Ely released five albums (four studio sets and the concert recording Live Shots) on major label MCA Records between 1977 and 1981, gradually modifying his style from country to rock. 1984's Hi-Res took the transition a step further, as Ely returned to record stores after a three-year break with an album on which synthesizers played a major part, but fans and critics had mixed reactions. Ely then parted ways with MCA, and Lord of the Highway, another three years on, finds him with the independent HighTone Records label. Mitch Watkins, who played those synthesizers on Hi-Res, is still around on keyboards, along with an otherwise all-new backup band (Davis McLarty on drums; Jimmy Pettit on bass; David Grissom on guitar; Bobby Keys on saxophone). But the roots rock sound of Lord of the Highway is much closer to 1981's Musta Notta Gotta Lotta than to Hi-Res. Taking more time to write, Ely makes several excellent additions to his songbook, starting with the shaggy dog Western saga "Me and Billy the Kid" and including "Are You Listenin' Lucky?" The lengthy "Letter to L.A." is musically reminiscent of the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want," a connection accentuated by the presence of Keys, a longtime Stones sideman. The concluding "Silver City" seems to be an allegorical cautionary tale about what happens to the dreams of an idealistic young man when he encounters the outside world. As on earlier Ely albums, Butch Hancock provides a couple of strong compositions, the title song, and "Row of Dominoes." In 1981, Ely seemed to be on the verge of stardom. He doesn't anymore, but Lord of the Highway suggests he will still be out on the road playing his powerful music for some time to come. At a transitional time in the record business, Lord of the Highway was released as a ten-track album on LP and cassette, but in order to stimulate sales of the CD format, that version came out simultaneously with an eleventh bonus track, "Screaming Blue Jillions," a rock & roll song set to the Bo Diddley beat and the sort of enjoyable minor number that used to be reserved for the B-sides of singles. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Due to its title, its stylized cover, and articles portraying Joe Ely as having fallen in love with computers and synthesizers, Hi-Res, his fifth studio album, unfairly got a reputation as some sort of synth pop effort, a sort of "Joe Ely meets Kraftwerk" monstrosity. So, those who actually hear it may be surprised to find that it actually sounds like most of Joe Ely's other records, the musical arrangements dominated by slashing electric guitar work, the songs often bearing Ely's cockeyed sense of humor. There are synthesized keyboards and even synth-drums to be heard here and there, and the arrangements are more elaborate and somewhat more pop-oriented than before, but this is still the same Joe Ely who made Musta Notta Gotta Lotta. That album, however, had largely erased the country influences in Ely's music, and here they are only a memory. "Dame Tu Mano" has a distinct Tex-Mex feel, but that's just about it. Still, if Hi-Res is an essentially misunderstood album, that's not to say it is a great one. The real problem with the disc is not the sound of it, it's the material. For once, Ely is not relying heavily on Butch Hancock to augment the songwriting, and it shows. "What's Shakin' Tonight" is a dynamic opener; "Cool Rockin' Loretta" is a keeper, and so is "Letter to Laredo." But "She Gotta Get the Gettin'" and "Locked in a Boxcar with the Queen of Spain" sound like retreads, and the rest of the songs are just forgettable. Thus, this is an uneven collection, and unfortunately it came at a time, more than three years after Ely's last studio album, when he needed to reintroduce himself to his audience and expand on it. Instead, his audience was put off, and nobody else joined in. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
