Joe Ely, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter who helped spearhead Texas’ progressive nation motion within the Nineteen Seventies, has died, his consultant confirmed to Rolling Stone. Ely died from issues of Lewy Physique Dementia, Parkinson’s, and pneumonia at his house in Taos, New Mexico. He was 78.
As is true of essentially the most revered nation icons, Ely lived a protracted and storied life that was ripe with materials for songs. Though his music profession technically started with the Flatlanders, the nation band he fashioned with fellow Texans Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock in 1972, Ely actually discovered his viewers along with his self-titled solo debut in 1977; with every passing yr, Ely’s pure lyricism and ear for rock hooks helped push a brand new sort of progressive nation to the forefront of the Texas group. Within the a long time that adopted, he went on to collaborate with the Conflict, Bruce Springsteen, Uncle Tupelo, the Chieftans, and lots of others.
Born in Amarillo, Texas, on February 9, 1947, Ely and his household relocated to Lubbock the place he spent his teenage years attending highschool and enjoying guitar. In his 20s, Ely crossed paths with Gilmore and Hancock they usually determined to kind a band that might make the most of their pursuits in nation, folks, and storytelling. The Flatlanders solely launched one album, 1973’s All American Music, earlier than disbanding that very same yr. Nevertheless, as soon as the three musicians discovered impartial success as solo artists, they regrouped to report a handful of albums collectively and carry out dwell as a band as soon as once more, finally incomes their place within the Austin Music Awards Corridor of Fame.
When he launched his solo profession, Ely settled into nation music from an openminded and openhearted place, churning out songs that welcomed everybody into the fold no matter how acquainted they had been with the style. That accessible strategy earned him a number of charting albums, with 1981’s Musta Notta Gotta Lotta hitting No. 135 on the Billboard 200 and No. 12 on the High Nation Albums chart. Afterward, 1998’s Twistin’ within the Wind reached No. 55, 2003’s Streets of Sin peaked at No. 51, and his 2011 report Happy at Final claimed spot No. 46 on the High Nation Albums chart. But for all of his beloved originals, certainly one of Ely’s greatest songs was a canopy of Robert Early Eager’s “The Highway Goes on Ceaselessly,” which he tacked onto his 1992 album Love and Hazard. His remaining album, Love and Freedom, got here out in February 2025.
