Tag: Joe Ely

LISTEN: The Flatlanders, “She Belongs to Me”

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Artist: The Flatlanders
Hometown: Lubbock, Texas
Song: “She Belongs to Me” (Bob Dylan cover)
Album: Treasure of Love
Release Date: July 9, 2021
Label: Rack ‘Em Records / Thirty Tigers

In Their Words: “I loved this song the first time I heard it and have never grown tired of it. Although it is written from the male perspective it touches upon the plight of a strong woman living in (what is still) a man’s world. Dylan was prescient in his understanding of so many of the dilemmas that have now become almost common knowledge. Butch, Joe, and I have shared an appreciation of Dylan’s artistry and wit from the beginning and after performing this for so many years I am happy to finally have a recorded version of it on a Flatlanders release.” — Jimmie Dale Gilmore

“From swapping songs sitting on some floor after midnight in Lubbock, Texas, to stage after stage from Italy to New Zealand, Jimmie’s voice and this song still echo the miles and smiles The Flatlanders have shared. This was always a great song to dream on.” — Butch Hancock

Pictured L-R: Butch Hancock, Joe Ely, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Photo credit: Paul Mobley

Capturing the Outlaws: Country Music Hall of Fame Salutes the 1970s

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Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson are familiar to every country fan – and more than a few would consider them the original Outlaws. In a brand new exhibit, Outlaws & Armadillos: Country’s Roaring ’70s, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville strives to explain how that name stuck. More importantly, it traces the connection between Nashville and Austin to show how these cities shaped country music in the 1970s, considered one of the genre’s most incredible periods of creativity and individuality.

The emergence of Willie Nelson as an iconic Texas musician is central to the exhibit. His blue sneakers and other parts of his casual wardrobe are emblematic of how he stood apart from country entertainers in that era.

Waylon Jennings and his wife, Jessi Colter (shown above), appeared on the first-ever platinum country album, Wanted! The Outlaws (1976). Guitars, a Grammy Award, and posters from Jennings’ performances in Nashville and Austin are on display.

A poster of the film Heartworn Highways is displayed next to a poncho embroidered with “… and Lefty,” which belonged to Townes Van Zandt. Items from Guy Clark, coach Darrell Royal, Alvin Crow, and Uncle Walt’s Band are also featured.

The comprehensive exhibit explains the contributions of Jerry Jeff Walker, Asleep at the Wheel, Michael Murphey, Doug Sahm and Freda & the Firedogs, through rarely-seen memorabilia provided by the artists.

Joe Ely poses next to the uniform he wore while working for the circus. Ely became a force in Texas music as a member of The Flatlanders and through a number of acclaimed solo projects. He also performed on opening night.

Texas natives Tanya Tucker and Billy Joe Shaver catch up at the opening night party. Jennings’ 1973 album, Honky Tonk Heroes, is composed almost entirely of Shaver’s songs. Tucker broke through in 1972 with “Delta Dawn.”

Text by Craig Shelburne

‘Panhandle Rambler’

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Death, taxes, and good songs from Joe Ely: Those are the three things you can count on in life and, with the release of this new set of a dozen tunes, the latter becomes more and more apparent. The central theme here is movement … of time, of people, of the restless heart. The songs are filled with references to Greyhound buses, women just out of reach, music coming from the mind and from the radio.

The opening cut, “Wounded Creek,” is a Spanish guitar-laced narrative of brambles and brush and scraggly Spaniel dogs. Ely beckons the biblical woman, “Magdalene,” to move with him to Mexico while Spanish guitar again informs the peyote bloom and lonely howl of “Coyotes Are Howlin’.” More allusions to coming and going, of music and men, on buses and in stock cars, are at the heart of “Early in the Morning.” “Southern Eyes” is a catchy crooner with a hillbilly gait while “Four Ol’ Brokes” spins a new yarn around an old cautionary tale of dealing dirty cards.

There are times when the production sounds a little too glossy and sterile for the material — we love music grown organically — but that’s a small criticism of a record of excellent songs that are well-played and well-sung.