{"title":"Joe Ely","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"driven-to-drive-3","title":"Driven to Drive","description":"\u003cp\u003eTwenty-three albums and several million miles after he first hit the road, Joe Ely presents his first road album Driven to Drive. The collection of songs about and inspired by motorized travel was curated by Ely, who in the mid-1970s swept off the flat plains of the Llano Estacado of West Texas like a whirling tornado, fronting a legendary band that was too rock for country, and too country for rock. The wild, wide-open honky-tonk roadhouse sound of the Joe Ely Band gave their hometown of Lubbock its first music hero since Buddy Holly. The project stitches together recordings made at Spur Studios, his home recording facility outside of Austin, over several decades, assisted by musician\/neighbors Joel Guzman on accordion, keyboardist Bill Guinn, singer Eddie Beethoven, and fiddler Richard Bowden. Last year at The Zone in Dripping Springs, Texas, Jeff Plankenhorn added his guitar to three tracks and engineer Pat Manske, who mastered Driven to Drive, added percussion. Movementinthesesongsismeasuredinmanyways:cars,sixteen-wheelers,motorcycle, Greyhound bus. There are pedal-to-the-metal anthems ginning down a straight strip of two-lane blacktop; a lazy meander on the Gulf blues highway; a tale of going on the lam on the Interstate; stories of getting from HeretoThere,andsongsaboutgoingnowhereatall TheLordoftheHighwayiscalling.JoeElywantstotake you for a ride.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rack 'Em Records","offers":[{"title":"Orange LP","offer_id":50402606776651,"sku":"2209875","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50402606547275,"sku":"2209864","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Driven_to_Drive_fbe8ed1d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726552129"},{"product_id":"musta-notta-gotta-lotta-hi-res","title":"Musta Notta Gotta Lotta \/ Hi-res","description":"\u003cp\u003edigitally remastered and with new notes. still recording and gigging, ely remains a strong influence. country rock singer \/ guitarist joe ely's last two albums for mca.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438842745163,"sku":"318588","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6b12f6af-b484-4b19-a6e2-26a5c9b6a0d7_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726948871"},{"product_id":"down-on-the-drag-live-shots","title":"Down On The Drag \/ Live Shots","description":"\u003cp\u003ejoe ely's third and fourth albums from 1979 and 1980 on the mca label. in the late seventies, joe ely built up a cult following (especially in britain) with his brand of country rock music. he followed his brilliant debut (untitled) album with the outstanding 'honky tonk masquerade'. next came this album, which was equally as outstanding with four butch hancock compositions alongside five ely originals. 'live shots' deftly documents a tumultuous texan set loose live in london. ely and his band rip through a set of mostly original honky-tonk rockers. digitally remastered with extensive new notes and slipcase.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"No Label","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50438843957579,"sku":"317558","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}]},{"product_id":"silver-city-pearls-from-the-vaults-volume-1","title":"Silver City (Pearls From The Vaults Volume 1)","description":"\u003cp\u003eJoe Ely celebrates the release of his book Bonfire Of Roadmaps with the re-release of \u003ci\u003eSilver City\u003c\/i\u003e which contains some of Joe's earliest songs. It is not unusual for a veteran artist to go back into his archives and come up with old songs he wrote many years back to present anew to his public, especially when that artist has come to form his own independent record company. Joe Ely founded Rack ‘Em Records in 2007 and here issues \u003ci\u003eSilver City\u003c\/i\u003e, its artwork including photographs of him as a young man, including one marked \"Lubbock c.1967,\" the year he turned 20. The scant annotations, meanwhile, contain the subtitle, \u003ci\u003ePearls from the Vault, Vol. 1\u003c\/i\u003e. The presumption, therefore, would be that the album's contents date back to that period, long before Ely's successful solo career and even before his participation in the Flatlanders. The compositions, indeed, may go back that far, but it turns out that the actual recordings are new; the 60-year-old Ely is re-creating the work of his 20-year-old self. To do so, he sings and plays acoustic guitar, sometimes overdubbing more vocals, more guitars, harmonica, and percussion. Occasionally, Joel Guzman's accordion joins in. The songs lean a bit more toward storytelling than in Ely's later work, whether he is addressing history in \"Wounded Knee,\" or telling the tale of an \"Indian Cowboy\" who saved lives at a circus. He also sings in the first person, sometimes launching into a shaggy dog story, such as the lengthy closer, \"Billy Boy,\" or the phantasmagorical \"Drivin' ‘Cross Russia,\" which anticipates later absurdist fables like \"Me and Billy the Kid\" and, as it happens, is set to the same tune.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rack'em Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50470693405003,"sku":"283569","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/932c5d1a-9697-4917-b71d-60540897a795_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727380596"},{"product_id":"love-in-the-midst-of-mayhem","title":"Love In The Midst of Mayhem","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLove in the Midst of Mayhem\u003c\/i\u003e features 10 recordings finished during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. \"When everything shut down, there were times for me that were absolutely maddening,\" Ely said. \"I was sleeping more than I should. Finally, my wife, Sharon and I decided we should focus our energy on what we do best.\" Ely turned his attention to writing and recording. \u003ci\u003eLove in the Midst of Mayhem\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection that reflects his mindset over the past couple of months. \"Initially, I was only going to release a couple of songs, but more songs kept coming together that fit where we are in the world right now.\" \"It is put together straight from the emergency we have right now,\" says longtime Ely friend and acclaimed artist Terry Allen. \"Every song is about love, for love, to love and with love... love when we need it most. \u003ci\u003eLove in the Midst of Mayhem\u003c\/i\u003e is not just a joy to listen to, it's a necessity.\" Joining Ely on the album are guitarists Mitch Watkins, Rob Gjersoe, Bradley Kopp, bassists Roscoe Beck, Glen Fukunaga, Gary Herman, Jimmy Pettit, drummers Davis McLarty, Pat Manske, Steve Meador, keyboardists Joel Guzman (also on accordion), the late Reese Wynans and the late Bill Ginn. \"There are a lot of wonderful songs on \u003ci\u003eLove in the Midst of Mayhem\u003c\/i\u003e,\" said actress and writer Jo Harvey Allen. \"I especially love 'You Can Rely On Me' - so sweet a song. As always we can rely on Joe and in this time of Pandemic appreciate his music even more.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rack'em Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50475610177867,"sku":"1133275","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/d96574ae-43ac-4091-9a4c-a1b4686f97a2_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727448169"},{"product_id":"flatland-lullaby","title":"Flatland Lullaby","description":"\u003cp\u003eNever-before-released children's album by Texas country\/roots\/rock-n-roll icon Joe Ely. The album has been in production since 1984 and is being released for the first time. Joe Ely has released a whole lotta records over the last 50 years, but not even half as many albums as he’s made. But happily for fans the world over, ever since 2007, Ely’s made a concerted effort to release a steady stream of pearls from that vault on his own Rack ’Em Records label. And this October — the same month as Ely’s induction into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame — he’s finally sharing what might well be the mother of them all: \u003ci\u003eFlatland Lullaby.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNow, to clarify: \u003ci\u003eFlatland Lullaby\u003c\/i\u003e is not necessarily what anyone, least of all Ely himself, would ever call a “big\" record. So go ahead and exhale if for a moment there you were thinking it was going to be, say, some kind of previously never-even-heard-about, full-on collaboration with the Clash, or even another treasure chest full of long-lost Flatlanders gold along the lines of 2012’s \u003ci\u003eThe Odessa Tapes\u003c\/i\u003e. That said, though, \u003ci\u003eFlatland Lullaby\u003c\/i\u003e really is a gift objectively more special by far than anything else released from Ely’s archives to date, because this one comes straight off the very top shelf of the family reserve. It’s the kind of passion project that could have only ever come into focus when the initial target audience extended no farther than the man’s nearest and dearest — namely, his daughter Marie. “It’s basically a little lullaby album that I did for her when she was 2 or 3 years old,” says Ely \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rack 'Em Records","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50476909265227,"sku":"1169133","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/98ae66c7-4576-43ee-a696-0178f083efef_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727464954"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/de\/collections\/joe-ely.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}