A View From Lubbock

The poetic songwriting of alt-country pioneer Joe Ely.

- John Wirt

Joe Ely’s talent and tenacity earned him a place among such Texas singer-songwriter peers as Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett and Ely’s bandmates in the Flatlanders, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock.

A songwriter of poetic power and a performer with commanding presence, Austin resident Ely turns to West Texas for inspiration. An Amarillo native who turned 70 this year, he spent especially formative years in Lubbock.

In the late 1950s, a Jerry Lee Lewis show Ely witnessed lit his desire to be a performer. He found more inspiration after his family moved to Lubbock. The 1959 plane-crash death of Lubbock native Buddy Holly inspired electric-guitar sales and the formation of garage bands all over the rock ’n’ roll star’s hometown. By 1964, Ely was gigging with his own band, the Twilights.

Ely didn’t write songs until the late ’60s. A chance encounter with Van Zandt, plus his preFlatlanders friendship with Gilmore and Hancock, inspired him to write. Songs have been flowing ever since.

Along with his decades of touring, Ely has released 19 solo albums and four albums with the Flatlanders. He’s performed with the supergroups Buzzin’ Cousins (John Mellencamp, Dwight Yoakam, John Prine and James McMurtry) and Los Super Seven (including Freddy Fender, Flaco Jiménez, Doug Sahm, David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas). He also planned a songwriting sabbatical in Mexico with his friend, Joe Strummer, but the former Clash singer’s death at 50 in 2002 stopped that promising collaboration.