“Joe Ely performed American roots music with the fervor of a true believer who knew music could transport souls. His distinctive musical style could only have emerged from Texas, with its southwestern blend of honky-tonk, rock & roll, roadhouse blues, western swing, and conjunto. He began his career in the Flatlanders, with fellow Lubbock natives Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, and he would mix their songs with his through fifty years of critically acclaimed recordings. But his true measure came through in the dynamic intensity of his powerhouse live performances, where he could stand his ground aside fellow zealots Bruce Springsteen who recorded duets with Ely, and the Stones and the Clash, who took Ely on tour as an opening act.”

—Kyle Young, CEO
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

About Sonny Curtis

Being born in the Texas panhandle right beside Route 66 was no accident, Joe Ely figured. It was, he said, what “destined me to be a highwayman.” The captain of thousands of live shows booked around the world, a singer and songwriter who made more than twenty solo albums, Joe Ely was at home everywhere and established a relationship with audiences wherever he went, playing country, rock & roll, and Tex-Mex music.

He died at his Taos, New Mexico home, December 15, of pneumonia as well as complications from Lewy Body Dementia and Parkinson’s. Ely was seventy-eight.

Born in Amarillo, Ely was raised in Lubbock, where he met Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. Together they formed the mercurial country-folk outfit the Flatlanders. Their 1973 debut album, “All American Music,” was only released in an 8-track format but gradually achieved legendary status and launched their solo careers.

Starting in 1977, a series of solo albums established Ely as a charismatic rounder, a student of both Beat Poets and Dust Bowl troubadours. His band had screaming guitars, pedal steel, and an accordion and created an indelible group sound. In this era, he befriended English punks the Clash, touring and recording with them as well.

Ely pursued numerous ambitious and creative avenues: he recorded a 1984 album on an Apple desktop computer and was a longtime member of Los Super Seven, a Tex-Mex supergroup that included Freddy Fender, Flaco Jiménez, Doug Sahm, and many others.

Ely had a longstanding relationship with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. After the Flatlanders debut had disappeared, Ely worked for Ringling Brothers circus, sweeping up after the llamas. He lent his circus work clothes and other artifacts for the “Outlaws & Armadillos” exhibition spotlighting the ’70s Austin scene. He was also part of a touring, in-the-round songwriters circle that included John Hiatt, Guy Clark, and Lyle Lovett, which was organized by the Hall in 1989 and toured together for years.

His most recent album, “Love & Freedom,” was released earlier this year. Ely also wrote a book, “Bonfire of Roadmaps.” He was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2017.

The throughline was the road that inspired him. “I love to come across a two-lane road that does not have a fence on either side,” he once said. “It’s perfectly flat—just a triangle of the highway and the field. It’s so empty that the only thing that can fill it up is a song.”

Watch a songwriting program that Joe Ely did at the Museum in 2018 in conjunction with the “Outlaws & Armadillos” exhibition.

WATCH HERE