Joe Ely – The Definitive Collection
-
CD1: 1. Mardi Gras
Waltz -
CD1: 2. I Had My
Hopes Up High -
CD1: 3. Gambler’s
Bride -
CD1: 4. Tennessee’s
Not The State I’m In -
CD1: 5. If You Were
A Bluebird -
CD1: 6. Treat Me
Like A Saturday Night -
CD1: 7. Honky
Tonk Masquerade -
CD1: 8. Honky
Tonkin’ -
CD1: 9. Tonight I
Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown -
CD1: 10. I’ll Be
Your Fool -
CD1: 11.
Fingernails -
CD1: 12. Fools Fall
In Love -
CD1: 13. B.B.Q. &
Foam -
CD1: 14. Crazy
Lemon -
CD1: 15. Down On
The Drag -
CD1: 16. Time For
Travelin’ -
CD1: 17. Dallas
-
CD1: 18. Hard
Livin’ -
CD1: 19. Musta
Notta Gotta Lotta -
CD1: 20. I Keep
Gettin’ Paid The Same -
CD1: 21. Cool
Rockin’ Loretta -
CD1: 22. Midnight
Shift (Live In London) -
CD1: 23. Not Fade
Away (Live In London) -
CD2: 2. Row Of
Dominoes (Live At Liberty Lunch) -
CD2: 3. Slow You
Down -
CD2: 4. Settle For
Love -
CD2: 5. Every Night
About This Time -
CD2: 6. The Road
Goes On Forever -
CD2: 7. Highways
and Heartaches -
CD2: 8. Saint
Valentine -
CD2: 9. Ranches And
Rivers -
CD2: 10. Letter to
Laredo -
CD2: 11. Gallo Del
Cielo -
CD2: 12. She
Finally Spoke Spanish To Me -
CD2: 13. All Just
To Get To You -
CD2: 14. Up On The
Ridge -
CD2: 15. You’re
Workin‘
For The Man -
CD2: 16. Sue Me Sue
-
CD2: 17. I’m A
Thousand
Miles From Home -
CD2: 18. You Can
Bet I’m Gone
Out
of Amarillo, Texas, came a singer/songwriter and super guitarist that
became one of the main movers and shakers of Austin’s progressive
country scene of the 1970s and ’80s. “It
was a life-changing childhood experience that inspired him to be a
musician. When he was 7, his parents took him to a local Pontiac
dealership to hear a piano-pounding singer from Ferriday,
Louisiana named Jerry
Lee Lewis. “I’ll never forget that vision of my childhood,”
Ely remembered years later. “You could hardly see across the
street, and then there’s this madman up there pounding on a piano.
The wind was blowing so hard it would blow the microphone over. Jerry
Lee would be singing and the microphone would go thump! And
somebody’d run over and pick it up and it would fall over again. It
was like a vision from hell. But it was so wonderful because it
seemed like it fit, with the wind blowing and the static electricity
in the air. I always look back at that moment as the very beginning,
the spark that made me consider doing this as my life.”
And one can easily pick up on that influence when listening to Ely’s
DEFINITIVE COLLECTION #19 – “Musta
Notta Gotta Lotta”
that sends us into the same toe-tapping tailspin as Lewis’s Great
Balls Of Fire.
of Amarillo, Texas, came a singer/songwriter and super guitarist that
became one of the main movers and shakers of Austin’s progressive
country scene of the 1970s and ’80s. “It
was a life-changing childhood experience that inspired him to be a
musician. When he was 7, his parents took him to a local Pontiac
dealership to hear a piano-pounding singer from Ferriday,
Louisiana named Jerry
Lee Lewis. “I’ll never forget that vision of my childhood,”
Ely remembered years later. “You could hardly see across the
street, and then there’s this madman up there pounding on a piano.
The wind was blowing so hard it would blow the microphone over. Jerry
Lee would be singing and the microphone would go thump! And
somebody’d run over and pick it up and it would fall over again. It
was like a vision from hell. But it was so wonderful because it
seemed like it fit, with the wind blowing and the static electricity
in the air. I always look back at that moment as the very beginning,
the spark that made me consider doing this as my life.”
And one can easily pick up on that influence when listening to Ely’s
DEFINITIVE COLLECTION #19 – “Musta
Notta Gotta Lotta”
that sends us into the same toe-tapping tailspin as Lewis’s Great
Balls Of Fire.
Even
with the influences of others in the music industry, Joe Ely is,
without a doubt, a sound of another color. His music touches on
honky-tonk,
Texas Country,
Tex-Mex and
rock and roll.
He has had a genre-crossing career, performing with Bruce
Springsteen, Uncle
Tupelo, Los
Super Seven, The
Chieftains 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 to name only a few.
with the influences of others in the music industry, Joe Ely is,
without a doubt, a sound of another color. His music touches on
honky-tonk,
Texas Country,
Tex-Mex and
rock and roll.
He has had a genre-crossing career, performing with Bruce
Springsteen, Uncle
Tupelo, Los
Super Seven, The
Chieftains 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 to name only a few.
Ely’s own first,
self-titled album was released in 1977. “Further
albums- HONKY TONK MASQUERADE and DOWN ON THE DRAG showed that the
first album was no fluke. An electric country-rock outfit designed to
play
up-tempo honky-tonk music for dancing audiences, the Joe Ely Band
proved to be a very popular live act, not only in Texas, but also
Europe. Ely and his band perfected
a mind-blowing celebration of Texas honky-tonk music, mixing rock
sounds with the traditional to bring it slap-bang up-to-date. They
were not from Nashville or Austin and were not even proper Outlaws,
but Ely and band became their own breed of drifters by knocking out
barroom crowds in far-flung places like Manhattan and Minneapolis and
even Manchester.” (Quote: Alan Cackett)
self-titled album was released in 1977. “Further
albums- HONKY TONK MASQUERADE and DOWN ON THE DRAG showed that the
first album was no fluke. An electric country-rock outfit designed to
play
up-tempo honky-tonk music for dancing audiences, the Joe Ely Band
proved to be a very popular live act, not only in Texas, but also
Europe. Ely and his band perfected
a mind-blowing celebration of Texas honky-tonk music, mixing rock
sounds with the traditional to bring it slap-bang up-to-date. They
were not from Nashville or Austin and were not even proper Outlaws,
but Ely and band became their own breed of drifters by knocking out
barroom crowds in far-flung places like Manhattan and Minneapolis and
even Manchester.” (Quote: Alan Cackett)
Throughout his
career, Ely has issued a steady stream of albums, most on the MCA
label, and a live album roughly every ten years. The Joe
Ely Band
song “Brainlock” was featured in the 1980 movie Roadie
starring
Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, Don Cornelius, and Kaki Hunter. 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.
career, Ely has issued a steady stream of albums, most on the MCA
label, and a live album roughly every ten years. The Joe
Ely Band
song “Brainlock” was featured in the 1980 movie Roadie
starring
Meat Loaf, Alice Cooper, Don Cornelius, and Kaki Hunter. 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. In 2011, Ely released the critically acclaimed album,
“Satisfied At Last”.
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. In 2011, Ely released the critically acclaimed album,
“Satisfied At Last”.
This reviewer highly
recommends that you stay home, give a party and kick off your shoes
as you listen to the changing genre’ from rock and roll of Musta
Notta Gotta Lotta to seeing DALLAS out of a DC9 at night. The
Definitive Collection of Joe Ely contains a smorgasbord of
arrangements in sound to savor the appetite of feel good music
cravers worldwide… yesterday, today, and tomorrow. (Ps: If you’re
not an avid exerciser, you will be after hearing this one.
Guaranteed you will have a ball.)
recommends that you stay home, give a party and kick off your shoes
as you listen to the changing genre’ from rock and roll of Musta
Notta Gotta Lotta to seeing DALLAS out of a DC9 at night. The
Definitive Collection of Joe Ely contains a smorgasbord of
arrangements in sound to savor the appetite of feel good music
cravers worldwide… yesterday, today, and tomorrow. (Ps: If you’re
not an avid exerciser, you will be after hearing this one.
Guaranteed you will have a ball.)
A.W.
Blake for Country Music News International Magazine
Blake for Country Music News International Magazine