If you think rock and roll is only a young man’s game, then you haven’t met Joe Ely. With more than four decades of writing, performing and touring behind him, this Texas singer songwriter is in top form. At 68, Ely still owns the stage with his compelling vocals, skillful guitar work and just the right amount of swagger.
And then there are the songs – beautifully crafted tales of love and loss, honky tonk barnburners, and heart-breaking ballads. Ely’s latest release, Panhandle Rambler, debuted last month. The 12 tracks include 10 originals and two covers: “Magdalene” penned by Texas music legend Guy Clark and poet/painter/songwriter Ray Stephenson and “When the Nights are Cold” written by fellow Flatlander Butch Hancock. The album credits a talent-laden list of friends and bandmates, musicians like Lloyd Maines, Joel Guzman and Warren Hood, and is further proof that this Lubbock luminary ranks among the greatest songwriters of his generation.
Ely’s talent hasn’t gone unrecognized. Earlier this year, the Texas Legislature named him the Official 2016 Texas State Musician, an honor he shares with folks like Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Billy Joe Shaver. An induction into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame is up next.
Ely acknowledged his new role as Official Musician of the Lone Star State with the same charm and sense of humor that he exhibits in his live performances. “Yeah, it kind of caught me off guard. I don’t know what my duties are,” he laughed. “When I’m State Musician, I’m going to have all the speed bumps removed in the state of Texas. That will be my first duty,” Ely told one of the senators at the capital when he received his proclamation.
Ely has been making music since he was eight, starting with the violin, but it wasn’t until his time with the Flatlanders that he first realized this would be his life’s work. Inspired by the songs his bandmates Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock were writing, Ely pulled out some of his own. “There came a point when I really decided that this was what I was going to do all my life. I didn’t know how or where, or any of that. I just realized,” he recalled.
However, he never envisioned he’d still be doing it at almost 70. “I didn’t really think I’d even be alive at this age,” he joked. “But I’m very glad to be working. In fact, in the last few years, I’ve put more songs together and recorded a lot. It’s been one of the most productive parts of my life, really.”
Ely’s approach to his craft has evolved over the years. “It’s completely changed. In fact, it changes all of the time,” he commented.
Working with Gilmore and Hancock had a huge impact on his songwriting. “ I had the great fortune of meeting Butch and Jimmie when we had the Flatlanders together,” Ely recalled. “All of their influence, all of the sudden I saw myself using that influence in the way I approached songs, so that it really changed my whole way of looking at things and not using the same clichés that you hear all the time, but actually going in and finding new things to write about.”
Ely met Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark around that same time. “I consider both of them to be songwriter masters, and so every time I’d meet someone, I’d take a little of their approach, or it would open up new things of what you can write about…I realized with these guys that you didn’t have to think about the audience or what the song was about. Just make it an interesting story, and it doesn’t even have to tell the whole story. Just something interesting that creates a little mystery in the whole process.”
Ever gracious, this Texas talent ended with a note of gratitude, “I feel lucky to have crossed paths with so many people that have inspired me and continue to inspire me.” His fans are grateful, too.
*Photo Credit Will Van Overbeek
–With permission from Red Dirt Nation
