I always felt like I wasn’t free to work at my own pace. It took so long for the label and the publishing to come together, and I found that it was easier to do it myself. I could work a lot better at my pace, without a record company holding a magnifying glass to everything. It gives me a lot of freedom, and I can put out things on my label that might not have a home elsewhere.
Photo by Barbara FG
I’d never really had the opportunity or the desire to write for other people. My songs are all very personal and connected to me and what’s happening in my life and it’s hard enough to write for you, much less for someone else. I know people that write strictly for others and I just don’t see that as something I can do.
Photo: Courtney Sudbrink
It's important to find new perspectives in songwriting. I'm not interested in making up a song that I could have done when I was 18 because I'm not thinking the same way. You have to keep widening your scope and never re-create something just because it was successful. I've spent my whole life looking to make that next different song. To me, that's success.
Alejandro Escovedo, Joe and Bruce Springsteen sing Woody Guthrie’s “Blowin’ Down This Road” at the Austin Music Awards; March 12, 2012.
Photo by Jay Janner.
Road to Austin Concert, Auditorium Shores, May 19, 2007
Photo by Eileen Llorente.
Dressing room trailer backstage at Aqua Fest in Austin with Jesse & Jerry Jeff, August 11th, 1994. Photo by Alan Messer
Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands on January 30, 1991.
Photo by Frans Schellekens
Ian Moore never really has to even think about technique because he’s been doing it since he was a kid. Hanging around the Austin scene, he and Charlie Sexton soaked in so much from Stevie Ray and the T-Birds. Ian plays intuitively and from the heart. He has an amazing sort of dedication, doesn’t take his work lightly and has this incredible sparkle in his eye.
Photo: Tracy Anne Hart, Rockefellers, Houston 1991, https://theheightsgallery.com/
Photo by Michael Wilson
Gruene Hall with Jerry Jeff Walker and Ray Wylie Hubbard, Jerry Jeff’s birthday party, 1/25/19.
Photo by Sharon Ely.
There are very few people who have remained as close as we have, especially in the music world. There are cases out there where brothers won’t even talk to each other because they’ve been in the music business together. We consider this a real precious thing.
Photo: John Taber
Joel Guzman & Joe, The Saxon Pub, December 2015.
Photo by Susan Darrow.
Joe, Steve Earle and Jack Ingram in front of the Plaza Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 5/26/16.
Photo by Lyle Lovett.
The Flatlanders, Terry Allen and Steve Earle, Outlaw Country Music Cruise 2019
Butch Hancock, Jimmy Gilmore, Joe Ely, Terry Allen, and Steve Earle at Outlaw Cruise
Joe, Steve Earle and Jack Ingram in front of the Plaza Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 5/26/16.
Photo by Lyle Lovett.
Artists & Filmmakers Dinner honoring Kris Kristofferson with the Feed The Peace award at the Four Seasons Hotel on February 10, 2013.
Photo by Gary A Miller.
The Flatlanders with legendary photographer David Gahr, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings at the Newport Folk Festival, August 4, 2001.
Photo by Jack Casey.
When I was 7, my parents took me 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. 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 that 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 and 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.
Photo: With Bruce Springsteen & Jerry Lee Lewis in Dublin, Ireland 1993.
Going over “Settle for Love” backstage with Bruce Springsteen before joining him onstage for the encore at RDS Arena in Dublin, Ireland on May 20, 1993.
backstage at Fitzgerald’s, Houston, July 1984 with Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Photo by Tracy Anne Hart
Charlie Sexton, age 14, Austin 1983. Listen to Joe & Charlie on “Ride A Motorcycle" from B4 84 on Rack'em Records recorded same year, 1983: https://youtu.be/GqBtx_yWQho
Photo by Jon Tannon
Joe Ely and Linda Ronstadt
Photo by Milton Adams, Lubbock 1982
Club Lingerie, Hollywood, CA, September 25, 1982 sharing the bill with Los Lobos.
In the kitchen with Stubb, Charlie Sexton and Joe Strummer.
Photo by Sharon Ely, 1982.
Rehearsal for Tornado Jam at Jay Boy Adams studio in Lubbock with Linda Ronstadt on April 30, 1982.
Photo by Milton Adams.
“Wild Thing” - Joe with Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks during Joe’s 18 show run with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1981. Stevie Nicks appeared at a handful of shows to sing “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” with Tom. Joe and Stevie would join Tom for one final encore song, “Wild Thing” to close the show. (Photographer unknown). Special thanks to Ed Gray
Fitzgerald’s in Houston. Photo by Donald Sloan
Keith, Bobby and Joe, Lone Star Cafe, New York City
“Charlie, Joe Strummer and Joe in our kitchen in the summer of ‘82 having a great time.” Photo by Sharon Ely.
“Came across this old photo from one of the legendary ‘Battle of The Bands’ nights between The Blasters and the Joe Ely Band. L-R: Steve Berlin, Joe Ely, DA, the late guitar champion Jesse Taylor, Phil Alvin. In 1982 or so, the two bands did a tour of the Southwest that started in Colorado and ended with a multi-night engagement at the beloved yet long gone Fitzgerald's night spot in Houston, Texas. We swapped opening and closing slots every night and even though neither orchestra really won these good natured battles, the mutual respect/admiration we shared made sure every performance was a seriously sweaty and intense barn burner.” - Dave Alvin
Photo: Tracy Anne Hart, theheightsgallery.com
Joe, Jesse Taylor, and Elyse Gilmore play a set on a porch in Slaton, Texas.
Photo by Karin Wikstrom-Miller, 1976
My grandfather worked on the Rock Island Line and my dad worked on the Santa Fe for 37 years. He had a moving van company and drove Route 66, and Route 66 went right through Amarillo. If I heard Woody Guthrie singing about a plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon, I had to go there. Even though it was in the middle of nowhere, I had to go there just to be there.
Photo: Grant Goddard
Photo: Jesse, Roy and Joe backstage at the Dallas Convention Center during the 1981 Texas Music Awards.
Photo courtesy Traces of Texas.
Austin Opera House, 1987
Cindy Light Photography
Recording “Honky Tonk Masquerade” at Young 'Un Sound recording studio, Murfreesboro, Tennessee - October 1977.
“I first met and photographed Joe in 1977 while he was recording, “Honky Tonk Masquerade.” I was introduced to Joe by Kelly Delaney, MCA publicist and jolly good cowboy fellow, who drove me out to Murfreesboro, a Nashville suburb, in his Mustang convertible, and a new chapter in my story began.” - Alan Messer
Chip Young’s Studio, Youngun Sound, Murfreesboro, Tennessee 1978.
Photos by Alan Messer
Joe, Pat Mears, Butch Hancock and Lucinda Williams at the Alamo Lounge in Austin.
“David Gahr photographer's proof from my personal collection; Joe Ely street scene photo session from the 70's.” - Jim Hegan
Photo by Jim Eppler
Joe photographed in Paul Milosevich’s art studio in Lubbock, Texas by Jim Eppler in 1975. A portrait of writer Frank Waters by Paul Milosevich is in the background. Paul’s father’s milk stool from Yugoslavia is what Joe is sitting on. Tap image for full frame.
Joe has his clothes on backwards
It was Halloween
My first guitar was a steel guitar. Only in West Texas would you find a guy going door-to-door giving steel-guitar demonstrations. But that’s what happened. This guy just knocked on our front door one day and asked to come in, and my mother invited him in. And he set up an Oahu six-string lap-steel guitar and a little amplifier with a palm tree on it. So he sat there and played that steel guitar and I thought I was in heaven. It just seemed to fit: There was a dust storm blowing outside and here was this unearthly sound coming out of this little amplifier with a palm tree on it, and that was when I really realized that I was going to play guitar for the rest of my life.
Chester Smpson
Chester Simpson
I think there’s just a lot of people that kind of need somewhere to lean or something to lean on and there’s nothing like a song to give you a little bit of stability. I think that’s especially true now when there is chaos and craziness going on all around us
Photo by Jimmy Bruch
2023 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with The Flatlanders. Photo by Tim Mosenfelder
I like to tell in a song where the location is, paint the background, and then bring it into a rhythmic world and try to find something that doesn’t take away from it, but adds to it.
Photo by Jo Lopez
MCA press photo by Michael Wilson, July 6, 1998.
The West Texas and Oklahoma honky-tonk scene was totally lawless. We used to play these shows and there'd be a thousand people in there and not a security guard in sight. Everyone would bring their own booze because a lot these places were dry, so you'd have to buy stuff from bootleggers. The bootleggers sold half-pints of gin out of their cars and wore big, old pistols.
There was just no law out there, the law left those places alone because it was too dangerous for them. It's just the way things are when you get out into the wide-open spaces.
Photo by Valerie Fremin
City Winery Nashville with The Flatlanders, 11/18/19. Photo by Jeff Fasano Photography, backstage project.
There is such a wealth of creativity stored in Texas that comes from its colorful past. When the cowboys were driving the cattle across the range, they sang at night to knock off the chill. That old tradition from folk music has traveled to so many different places, and here we are today in modern-day Texas, and it’s still generating music. Not many states can say that. From the early campfire days and the early days of singer-songwriter harmonica playing, guys in different places on cattle drives would send a song to see how other groups were faring. And that transformed into blues and country. It’s telling a story, singing songs about life as it evolves into where we are right now.
Photo: Barbara FG
Joe with Wayne Kramer (MC5) and James Williamson (Stooges) at the Paramount Theatre in Austin for the debut of Alejandro Escovedo & Don Antonio Band’s “The Crossing,” each was featured on the album, 1/5/19.
Photo by Todd V Wolfson.
Saxon Pub, Austin, 11/24/17.
“It doesn't get any better than this. 90 minutes of Texas original, Joe Ely, spinning tales and singing songs, solo.” © Photograph by Alan Messer | www.alanmesser.com
Robert Earl Keen, Joe, Lloyd Maines and Terry Lickona, Austin City Limits executive producer, onstage as Lloyd is inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame during the Austin City Limits 40th Anniversary show taping on June 26, 2014.
Photo by Gary A Miller.
Joe & Lloyd, 2012
Photo by Vance Bouchillon
Kris Kristofferson
San Francisco, 2008.
Portrait by Chris Felver.
I didn’t meet Butch until, like, ’69 or ’70, but I met Jimmie in the sixties—maybe ’65. Jimmie knew the real beatnik scene, all the writers and poets and piano players. There was a big line between Berkeley and Lubbock. People went back and forth between Berkeley and Lubbock all the time.
Photo: Todd V Wolfson
Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas with Bobby Keys, 1986. “It was a very hot gig. Joe told me backstage that it starts hot in Texas and builds from there. I met Bobby Keys for the first time. Also in the band, David Grissom - guitar, Davis Mclarty - drums and Jimmy Pettit - bass. This is an original print, old and scratched that was reproduced in Spin Magazine.” - Alan Messer
Onstage with Dave Alvin at Fitzgerald's, Houston 1986.
Photo by Tracy Anne Hart
“I saw the band for the first time in 1993. It was at Auditorium Shores in Austin. Seeing Joe and David was the closest I’ll ever get to seeing Elvis with James Burton or Scotty Moore. Hugely inspirational to me as a guitar player and hugely entertaining to me as an audience member!” - Allen Garber, Baytown, Texas
With David Grissom 4/18/90.
Photo: Scott Newton
The Buzzin’ Cousins: John Mellencamp, John Prine, Dwight Yoakam, Joe Ely, and James McMurtry. This short-lived supergroup came together to record "Sweet Suzanne" for the 1992 “Falling from Grace” film.
I can’t remember a time in my life I had more fun than being on the road with Bobby.
Photo: Tracy Anne Hart, Fitzgerald’s, Houston 1986
Opening set for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at The Summit in Houston, Texas 9/22/81. Photo by David Berry.
Photo courtesy of Steve Moss
Joe Ely and Joe Strummer
“Wilko Johnson and Joe Ely during the recording of RTÉ Television's 'The Session' at The Point Depot in November 1988. ‘The Session' was an RTÉ/Frontier Films co- production which featured musicians from Ireland, Britain and America performing together - the shows were recorded at the Point Depot venue in Dublin's Dockland in front of a live audience. Wilko Johnson and Joe Ely featured on the show broadcast on 4 June 1989. An article on the entire series appeared in the RTÉ Guide of 21 April 1989.
Onstage at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA. The last of a five show run with The Kinks, 8/22/81.
Photo by Larry Hulst.
I was trying to hold down two jobs. I had to wash dishes in this place over on 34th Street at this place called the Chicken Box. So every day after school I would do that. Then I was getting my band together at that time, so I would go out at night after washing dishes, I would go out & play. I was probably fourteen when I had that job. Then I started my little band, so pretty soon it became obvious that music was a damn sight more fun than washing dishes at the Chicken Box.
Sharing the microphone with Will Sexton on his 17th birthday party at the Continental Club in 1987. Charlie, far left. Then there's Grissom, Alex, Jeff Boaz on the drums. One of the greatest nights ever at the Continental Club.
Photo by Casey Monahan.
Joe and Bobby 1986 | Levels
Joe and David Grissom during the release celebration of the video “Live in Texas” at Waterloo Records in Austin on October 29, 1986. The video was shot one month prior at Gruene Hall.
Photo by Cindy Light.
It was such a great space. It was close to downtown, and it had this old, old Houston vibe. When I started playing Houston, it’d be downtown around Market Square. Later on I discovered Fitzgerald’s, and it was a major change for me. It really was my place in Houston.
Photo by Ben DeSoto, Fitzgerald’s, 3/17/82
Archive photo • Dallas 1982, Joe Ely and Charlie Sexton
Joe and The Clash
On September 8, 1979, The Clash invited Joe onstage and played “Fingernails” at “Tribal Stomp Potluck Picnic & Dance" in Monterey, CA, a two-day festival produced by Chet Helms and the Family Dog. Photographed on assignment for Rolling Stone and NME magazines by Chester B. Simpson.
Full set in first comment. Joe joins in at the 54:20 mark. “We really wanted to play with Joe.” - Joe Strummer
Saturday, September 8, 1979, Monterey County Fairgrounds: Joe Ely, Peter Tosh, Robert Fripp, The Clash.
Photo Chester Simpson
Fitzgerald’s
Photo by David Ritchie
Joe and Bonnie Raitt
One time I lost four years of songs I had written and stories in my journal. One time I lost an entire album when I was coming back after we were touring with the Clash in London. I was over in Europe for a few months and had recorded an album on a little tape recorder and had it all pretty mapped out and was going to record it when I got back to Texas, but we got to New York City and the taxicab that took us from the airport to the Chelsea Hotel drove off and it had my bag in it with all four years of writings and a complete record album, all the notes on cassette tape, and it never came back. That night I kicked a table in my hotel room and broke my foot, so for the next three weeks I had to hobble along on tour from town to town with a cast on my foot and playing every night. It was miserable.
Photo: Tracy Anne Hart
Joe and Linda Rondstadt
Joe and The Joe Ely band , opening for the Rollingstones in Tempe ,Arizona 1981
Joe, lead guitar player Rick Hulett and the first Joe Ely Band, visit with Tiny McFarland at his home on the Pedernales in the mid-70s shortly before signing with MCA. Photo by Jim Eppler.
Joe at Stubb's
Playing with the Clash definitely kicked my band up a notch. Growing up in Lubbock, I always hung around with the rock & roll guys, so I came from a rockin' background. We played the Palladium in Hollywood together and Monterey Pop festival, Bond's in New York. It was a big boost for us, so when they invited us the following year for the London Calling shows in London, it was a real eye-opener. We were playing their venues with them - the Electric Ballroom, Hammersmith Odeon, wild, steamy, crazy shows that were unbelievable.
Photo: Monterey Pop Festival II, 9/8/79, by George Rose
Stubb Joe and Tom T Hall
Austin Opera House, 1977. “What is it about stage presence and charisma where some are favored and some are just normal people no matter how hard they try? You can't always pick such folks out of a crowd, but once they get onstage, eyes have to be pried off them if you're going to see anything else. Joe Ely is so favored by the Muse. It is always fun, and interesting, watching him perform.” - Scott Newton, scottnewtonphotography.com
Signing a Buddy Holly Foundation book and guitar at the Texas State Capitol. Photo by Barbara FG.
Sitting in with Lawrence Wright’s Austin-based blues band WhoDo to close out SXSW 2023 at The Skylark Lounge on Sunday, March 19.
Guy Clark Old Friends Reunion on his 73rd birthday in Nashville on November 6, 2014.
Front row: Robert Earl Keen, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Guy Clark. Back row: Steve Earle, Jerry Jeff Walker, Rodney Crowell, Joe, Terry Allen.
Sheryl Crow, Doyle Bramhall ll, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Earl Keen and Joe during “Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years” at ACL Live on June 26, 2014.
Photo by Rick Kern.
Joe & Jimmie, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2013. Photo by Aldo Blasi
I just feel incredibly lucky that I’ve somehow had contact with writers who ended up influencing me greatly throughout my life, guys like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and of course Jimmie and Butch. And the list goes on and on. Something about writing songs—you almost have to be, at some time or another, face to face with the subject. You can learn a song from the internet or an album or whatever, but something about that face-to-face contact tells you where the real emotion is.
Photo: Barbara FG
Stubb’s Cadillac, photo by Valerie Fremin.
Sitting in with Lawrence Wright’s Austin-based blues band WhoDo to close out SXSW 2023 at The Skylark Lounge on Sunday, March 19. KTYarbrough Photography. https://whodoblues.com/
Charlie Sexton, Alejandro Escovedo, John Hiatt and Joe at the 36th Annual Austin Music Awards at ACL Live on February 28, 2018.
Photo by Gary A Miller.
yle Lovett and Joe, 2015 Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Induction and Concert at ACL Live on June 18, 2015. Lyle accepted the award on Guy Clark’s behalf.
Photo by Gary A Miller.
Joe, Bonnie Raitt and Gary Clark Jr., “Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years” at ACL Live on June 26, 2014.
Photo by Rick Kern.
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with The Flatlanders, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, September 30, 2010.
Photo by Larry Hulst.
Photographed at home in 2007 by Todd V Wolfson for No Depression magazine. Neon art by Bale Creek Allen.
T Bone Burnett & Ralph Stanley visit The Flatlanders backstage at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin on July 19, 2002.
Photo by Sharon Ely.
Bruce Springsteen sings backing vocals on “All Just to Get to You,” and I like how our voices work together on those parts. We were doing a benefit together, he’d asked me to be a part, and that was the start of my long friendship with him. He’s a great guy to hang out with, and I like his way of painting characters and their backgrounds. He tells a great story. We started to play quite a lot of shows together.
Photo: Deborah Wilson
1997 Austin Music Awards with Dale Watson and Jimmie.
Photo by Tracy Anne Hart
The Buzzin’ Cousins, 1992
John Mellencamp, John Prine, Dwight Yoakam, Joe Ely, James McMurtry
Stevie Ray Vaughan, Austin Music Awards 1990. Those are stacks of awards under Stevie's left arm.
Photo by Martha Grenon.
Photo with Kimmie Rhodes and Doug at the Broken Spoke in Austin by Bob Zinc
Townes Van Zandt was born March 7, 1944 in Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Paulo Brillo, Only A Hobo Festival in Sala Marna, Sesto Calende, Italy, December 2, 1994.
“The first photo I ever took of Joe! 1987, I was a receptionist at KLBJ Radio station for several years. Joe did an extended interview with Ed Mayberry. After hearing all the great stories he told, I just had to go hear the Joe Ely Band asap. The rest is history! I continued to shoot pics for Joe & the band. Joe & I share the same birth date. Another connection I always thought was pretty cool.” - Cindy Light
L to R: Richard Bowden, Terry Allen, Joe, Cary C. Banks, Kenny Maines, Donnie Maines, Lloyd Maines and C.B.Stubbfield backstage at a Terry Allen art show and concert in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1982.
Photo courtesy of Chuck Lanehart.
“In November, 1981, I was just a kid. And one who hadn’t really found anything they had the talent and drive to pursue. That all changed when I met and photographed the inimitable Joe Ely. All at once, my crazy mind and untrained eye knew for the first time what they were meant for. Everything crystallized and I was astonished at what I had captured. Had I not had that session with Mr. Ely, I cannot say what path I would have eventually chosen - or what path would have chosen me. I’m so grateful for his help with my career and my passion!”
He handed me a record out of his backpack that he'd just made in San Francisco. We played that record for the next days, months and years. It was an eye-opener. We were just beginning to write songs, and Townes set a whole new standard for how songs should be written.
Photo: Claudio Mauro
“People think that just because I joined Joe Ely, I must be a country player. But I’d dispute that. The truth is Joe got himself a Texas blues guitarist that was adaptable enough to fit in with the format of the band. The reason that band sounded so good and was able to play to so many different people was the incorporation of many styles into what Joe was doing. I enjoyed every minute of it.” - Jesse “Guitar” Taylor
Photo: Club Lingerie, Hollywood, CA, September 25, 1982 with Los Lobos by Joel Aparicio, courtesy of David Holt.
Right after my daddy died I was trying to keep my family alive. We lost the old used clothing store my family had downtown, and I had to go out and play old honky-tonks; I was still in high school, but I had to play these old speakeasies on the outskirts of town just to bring in some money for food because we didn’t have any. I was also trying to keep a job washing dishes at the Chicken Box, and the Vietnam War was going on and they were drafting everybody my age. Finally everything kind of caved in on me and I just couldn’t handle it anymore and hit the road.
It was a very hard time. It was like everybody I knew was getting drafted, my family was falling apart, my friends were going crazy, the world was going crazy and I was losing people left and right. It was just this period where everything was in a whirlpool. Soon after that, the Flatlanders happened, and then I joined the circus and then I got a recording contract.
Backstage at Fitzgerald’s in Houston with David Grissom and Bobby Keys, 1986.
Photo by Tracy Anne Hart.
Jimmy Pettit leans in during the two nights of recording “Live at Liberty Lunch,” April 21-22, 1989. Thanks to photographer Cindy Light. This is the first time her photo has been published. She also took the photo on the album cover.
“Joe with his daughter Marie in Austin, Texas, May 1992. I snapped this picture after a photo session for Joe’s, “Love and Danger” album. I was the photographer and art director.” - Alan Messer
When I was 7, my parents took me 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. 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 that 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 and 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.
Photo: With Bruce Springsteen & Jerry Lee Lewis in Dublin, Ireland 1993.
Third Coast, The Magazine of Contemporary Austin, published their first issue in August 1981. They wanted to feature Joe, and he was told what to wear for the cover photo shoot. Below is his response. Moral of the story? Don’t ever tell Joe Ely what to wear.
Photo by Will van Overbeek.
Lone Star Cafe in NYC with Delbert McClinton.
Fitzgerald’s in Houston, July 18, 1984
Photo by Steve Klopovich.
“Joe and I took the Clash to see the Alamo. This was just after they finished filming the video “Rock the Casbah.” I took these pictures. The bottom photo is of Joe Ely taking a photo of the Clash. Then we went to eat Mexican food and listened to mariachi bands play for us. It is a very good memory of times gone by.” - Sharon Ely
Young 'Un Sound recording studio, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, October 1977.
Photo by Alan Messer | www.alanmesser.com
Impact 66, presented by the 1966 senior class at Lubbock’s Monterey High School featuring Joey Ely and the Impacts playing “Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" by Gerry and the Pacemakers.
Photo by Sharon Ely.
It’s funny, but every record I do, I approach it differently. And then I always learn something in the middle of it. Because you’re always running into different obstacles — just in your head, really — and you’re always asking yourself whether this is right or not, whether it’s true or if it’s false. And in the end, you just have to go with what record you want to make at that period of time. I’m not trying to prove anything or do anything except wanting to make the right record for this period in my life.
Photo: Barbara FG
Their voices sound great individually, but they also blend. They sound so different when they’re singing by themselves, but when they do harmonies it’s almost like they’re brothers. - Lloyd Maines
Photo by Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman
I chase songs and I catch one of them every once in a while. I’ve got a whole bunch that I chased for many years but never caught. Sometimes it’s like a stew or something: They can sit and simmer for many years until something might happen that lets you finish them.
Photo Jeff Fasano
Joe and Marcia Ball at the 8th annual Austin City Limits Hall of Fame honors Joe Ely at ACL Live at The Moody Theater on October 27, 2022.
Photo by Gary A Mille
23rd Annual Old Settler's Music Festival, Salt Lick Pavilion, Driftwood, Texas. April 16, 2010.
Photo: Steve Hopson
The Flatlanders rehearse for the 2023 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with Robbie Gjersoe, Jimmy Pettit and Pat Manske at Space ATX in South Austin, 5/5/23
Barbara FG
Margaret Moser Memorial with Monte Warden and Charlie Sexton at Antone’s, December 2017. Photo courtesy Jac Darznieks
We just have to lay down the weapons and take up compassion. It's become obvious that only through compassion can we survive, because the world can't go on this way, and I'm not just talking about the United States.
Photo by Barbara FG
A great evening with Alejandro Escovedo at City Winery Nashville in 2017.
Academy Award winner, friend and fellow Texan, Tommy Lee Jones at the memorial for Bill Wittleff at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, 9/8/19.
Photo by Marie Ely.
Joe and Jimmie Vaughan, Texas State Musicians of the Year 2015 and 2016, at the Texas State Capitol. Both were honored by the legislature and the state of Texas.
Photo by Sean McCarthy.
Alejandro Escovedo, Joe and Bruce Springsteen sing Woody Guthrie’s “Blowin’ Down This Road” at the Austin Music Awards; March 12, 2012.
Photo by Jay Janner.
The great Texas singer/songwriter Joe Ely joins us for "Great Balls of Fire.” - Bruce Springsteen
Photo by Jo Lopez, The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Woodlands, TX 5/6/14
L-R: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Stephen Bruton, Cindy Cashdollar, T Bone Burnett, Joe Ely and Jessi Colter. Photographed by Mark Seliger at the Alamo in San Antonio on August 3, 2006 for Vanity Fair magazine.
Backstage with Kimmie Rhodes and Joe Gracey at Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic, Southpark Meadows, Austin, 2000.
© Photograph by Alan Messer | www.alanmesser.com
Austin Aquafest - 8/11/94
Joe played Aquafest eight times. This show was the fifth consecutive year he played the event and also his final appearance at Aquafest. - Ed Gray
Photo: Patti Mitchell
Band: Joe Ely, David Grissom, Lloyd Maines, Glenn Fukunaga, Davis McLarty.
Five weeks after 9/11, Bruce Springsteen asked Joe if he would come to New Jersey and play the Alliance of Neighbors Benefit Concerts at the Count Basie Theater benefitting the local victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Joe answered the call. Joe and Bruce played, “All Just to Get to You” both evenings. Seats in the first three rows were held back and given out to survivors of first responders at no charge. Joe said it was one of the toughest, most emotional, and humbling evenings he had ever experienced performing. The picture is from the first night. The second night was broadcast on a local cable TV station. The video of Joe and Bruce playing “All Just To Get To You” from the second night is in the first comment. - Ed Gray
Easter Sunday with Willie Nelson and Jimmie Dale Gilmore in Luck, Texas. Photo by Christina Fajardo.
Diamond Club in Toronto with Allen Toussaint and Guy Clark. February 1993
I like playing for somebody who’s worked all week and wants to come out on the weekends and let it all loose. For them music is a necessity.
Photo: Liberty Lunch, Austin, 1990s
Robert Smith Photography
“Joe and Joel Guzman come thru Tucson and Phoenix AZ for a pair of shows in 2005. These were Joe’s first Arizona shows after I moved to AZ in 2003. No way I was going to miss these! This was Joe’s first show in Phoenix in 7 years and second show since 1992's Love & Danger tour.” - Ed Gray
“So people think that just because I joined Joe Ely, I must be a country player. But I’d dispute that. The truth is Joe got himself a Texas blues guitarist that was adaptable enough to fit in with the format of the band. The reason that band sounded so good and was able to play to so many different people was the incorporation of many styles into what Joe was doing. I enjoyed every minute of it and still get to play with Joe, Butch, and Jimmie when the opportunity arises. They are all great players.”
Jesse Taylor interview with Peter Feenstra Rock ‘N’ Reel #11 1991 UK
Before I step onto a stage, I make certain I’m damn-sure ready. I don’t get on stage if I’m feeling just ho-hum. I am considerate of every crowd, whether it’s in Helsinki or Amarillo. It doesn’t matter where I am. If people have enough time to get out of their houses to see a band, I’m going to give it every ounce that I’ve got, for every single show. You can count on it.
The wind and the dust shaped his personality—his whole being was like a West Texas dust storm; he lived hard, traveled hard, played hard, y'know, with all that that takes. That was his being—and how he played, and that's what got him noticed by the Stones in the first place… he was untamed.
“One of the hottest gigs ever due to the addition of film lights to the Texas air. The band rocked: David Grissom, Bobby Keys, Jimmy Pettit, Davis McLarty.” - Gruene Hall, September 27, 1986.
© Photograph by Alan Messer | www.alanmesser.com
Lone Star Cafe in NYC during Hurricane Gloria, 1985.
Photo by Ted Newman-Jones.
If I had a band going, I’d try to do something like playing the private clubs – which was a little depressing. I usually didn’t stay in one place too long though. I just didn’t feel right playing to a crowd that would come up and say, ‘Hey, play this or I’ll break your neck.’ In those places, music always seems like another luxury, instead of a necessity. I like playing for somebody who’s worked all week and wants to come out on the weekends and let it all loose. For them music is a necessity, not just one more luxury. “
Photo: Martha Grenon.
We started getting a little bit of a following out at the bigger honky-tonks and among the Texas Tech kids. I remember on a Monday morning someone came over to the house and said, “Man, the preacher at the First Baptist Church did a sermon on the evils of honky-tonks, on the drinking and dancing.” And he said, “He mentioned your name specifically!” I went, “Oh, man, I’m finished! I’m washed up!” This is before I’d even started recording. But you know what? The next Saturday night, we had a line four blocks long to get into the honky-tonk. It was advertising, and from then on we had great crowds.
Photo: Martha Grenon
Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Linda Ronstadt and Jesse “Guitar” Taylor playing “That’ll Be The Day” after crashing the Monterey High School graduation dance at the Cotton Club in Lubbock on April 30, 1982, the night before Tornado Jam.
“The guy in charge of cleaning and making sure everyone got out of there on time turned the electricity off in the middle of the song. Joe knew where the electric box was and turned it back on so they could finish. Linda said that had never happened to her and was quite amused.” - Sharon Ely
Photo by Milton Adams
Sharon Ely entering the Cotton Club in Lubbock with Linda Ronstadt, Joe, and Billy Payne the day before Tornado Jam, 1981.
Photo by Milton Adams.
Joe Ely, opener for Rollingstones 1981, Tempe Arizona
Onstage with The Clash at Armadillo World Headquarters, October 4, 1979.
Photo: Mark Bowman Images.
“A friend from my Texas Tech days sent this nugget from 1978 to me a couple of days ago. Joe had just returned from his first ever European tour in support of his “Honky Tonk Masqurade” album. Great piece of history Todd. Keep those rarities coming!” -Ed Gray
“Honky Tonk Masquerade reminds you why Ely and his band are so good live. They were touring solidly at the time they made this so came into the studio totally focused on their playing and many of the tracks on the album were recorded in a single take. You can hear how tight they are as a band on this recording. It’s simply one of the great country-rock recordings of the 70s and an album to die for.” - Rick Bayles, americana-uk.com
Photo: Young 'Un Sound studio, Murfreesboro, Tennessee recording “Honky Tonk Masquerade,” October 1977 by Alan Messer. https://alanmesser.com/
Joe at Monterey High School in Lubbock, 1966 and Earle Ely, Joe’s father, in the Navy.
Photo courtesy of Sharon Ely.
Joe’s early band Rox Ltd, age 15.
Joe as a lifeguard in Lubbock, 1972.
Archive photo • List for songs 1979, Cold water Lubbock, Texas
