Joe Ely (album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Joe Ely | ||
 |
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| Studio album by Joe Ely | ||
| Released | 1977 | |
| Genre | country | |
| Length | 32:10 | |
| Label | MCA | |
| Producer(s) | Chip Young | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Joe Ely chronology | ||
| Joe Ely (1977) |
Honky Tonk Masquerade (1978) |
|
Joe Ely is the 1977 self-titled debut album by Joe Ely. The album includes several tracks with "near-classic" status among Ely fans,[1] including several written by Ely's bandmates from The Flatlanders. Although the The Flatlanders never actually broke-up, there would be several decades between their poorly distributed 1972 album and their next release.
Joe Ely, together with his follow-up, Honky Tonk Masquerade, established Ely as a solo artist. Although the album credits don't list the musicians, all indications are that Ely had already assembled the Lubbock-based crack team that appeared with him the following year on Honky Tonk Masquerade and continued to follow him on the road until 1982.[4][5]
Years later Ely would recall that the band had not initially made plans for a recording career:
"We had recorded some songs at [Don] Caldwell's studio," Ely said. "Don took that tape to Jerry Jeff Walker, and Jerry Jeff recorded one of the songs and played it for a guy with MCA Records. Then one night in 1975 at the Cotton Club, an A&R guy with MCA asked, 'Do ya'll want to make some records?'"
"I told him we'd sure never planned on it. But we hadn't planned anything else either, so why not?"[5]
In the years that followed the release of Joe Ely, the band would become an act of national stature.
[edit] Track listing
- "I Had My Hopes up High" (Ely) — 3:32
- "Mardi Gras Waltz" (Ely) — 2:50
- "She Never Spoke Spanish to Me" (Hancock) — 3:34
- "Gambler's Bride" (Ely) — 2:35
- "Suckin' a Big Bottle of Gin" (Hancock) — 3:15
- "Tennessee's Not the State I'm In" (Hancock) — 3:04
- "If You Were a Bluebird" (Hancock) — 2:59
- "Treat Me Like a Saturday Night" (Gilmore) — 3:02
- "All My Love" (Ely) — 3:09
- "Johnny's Blues" (Ely) — 4:10
[edit] Releases
The album was digitally remastered and released on CD and cassette in 1991.[4] In 2000, a remastered edition of Ely's first two albums (Joe Ely and Honky Tonk Masquerade) were released together on a single disk. Dirty Linen reported that this disk was especially worth seeking out since it was (at least at the time), "the only place on two continents you can get Ely's debut." The reviewer described Ely's first two albums together: "Ely's self-titled effort and HTM are a bit leaner than most of his other honky-tonk rockers, with a bit more piano than electric guitar backing his lonesome warble -- dry and forceful as the wind whistling through Waco."[3]
| year | format | record company | catalog number |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | LP | MCA | 2808 |
| LP | MCA | 2242 | |
| CD | MCA | 1-219 | |
| Cassette | MCA | MCAC-10219 | |
| CD | MCA | MCAD-10219 | |
| 2000 | CD | Beat Goes On (BGO) | BGOCD502[6] |
[edit] Notes and sources
- ^ a b Brian Mansfield, "Review: Joe Ely", All Music Guide (link)
- ^ Robert Christgau, Consumer Guide, (link)
- ^ a b "Linen Shorts" [short review of Joe Ely - Joe Ely/Honky Tonk Masquerade and New Riders of the Purple Sage - Gypsy Cowboy/The Adventures of Panama Red], Dirty Linen, 94, June-July 2001, p.79
- ^ a b Joe Ely Discography from the Official Homepage of Joe Ely
- ^ a b William Kerns, "After painful circus stint, Ely soared with new band", Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, February 10, 2007 (link)
- ^ This is a remastered disk that combines Joe Ely and Honky Tonk Masquerade onto a single disk.
