LITTLE ROCK — Back in the day when musicians depended on radio play to maximize their chances to make a living, Joe Ely found himself considered to be too country for rock stations, and too rock for country stations.
Rather than conform to anyone’s expectations, Ely just kept on making Joe Ely music, which can best be described as a mix of rock, country, folk, blues, honkytonk and Tex-Mex.
Ely, who was born in Amarillo, Texas, grew up in Lubbock and now lives in the Hill Country outside Austin, could be considered one of the finest exponents of all forms of Texas music.
And wouldn’t you know it? Both of his parents’ people moved to Texas from Arkansas — Center Hill, a bit west of Searcy.
The affable Ely, 65, though nearing what’s considered retirement age for some, shows few signs of slowing down. His most recent album, Satisfied at Last, opens with a song that some would take for Ely’s anthem, “The Highway Is My Home,” and he laughs at the truth of the opening song and the title cut of the album. When it comes to satisfaction, singer-songwriter Joe Ely is happy to report that at last he has found some. Or at least he is satisfied daily.
“I’ve reached an age where I don’t have anything to prove, no goals and no ambitions, just bouncing around the Midwest right now,” Ely reports from — where else — the highway. “Every so often I still like to check out the state of the union. I don’t believe in going out and doing stuff I don’t enjoy. I like to think I’m aging gracefully.”
And enjoyment seems to flow easily to Ely, who has released 24 albums since 1977, and worked in additional music with longtime pals Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, who together have recorded and toured as The Flatlanders. He’s also toured in a musical, storytelling format with John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett and Guy Clark. One of Ely’s best-known tour partnerships was with The Clash, England’s most prominent punk rock act, in the late 1970s.
Some of Ely’s best-known songs are “She Never Spoke Spanish to Me,” “Fingernails,” “Musta Notta Gotta Lotta,” “Dallas,” “Me and Billy the Kid” and his version of Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes on Forever.” His latest album features a version of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever.”
In 2007, Ely released a book, Bonfire of Roadmaps, which he says is merely an extension of his habit of keeping a journal. There’s also a novel, Super Reverb, which has not yet been published. Ely admits it’s semi-autobiographical.
“I’ve always recorded my thoughts,” he says. “In the early days, it was with a pen and notebook, and now I can use a phone for a recorder.”
Whenever he gets stuck in his songwriting, or other forms of writing, Ely retreats to his art, which began with a sketchbook he kept in his guitar case. He later moved from drawings into watercolors, and has had exhibits of his art, which he reckons numbers 500 to 600 pieces.
In his current tour, he’s accompanied by one of his band members, slide guitarist Jeff Plankenhorn. He’s also toured lately with The Flatlanders, who will be getting back together to play Carnegie Hall in early 2013. Ely has heard the old joke about how a musician gets to Carnegie Hall, but he has another version of the tale.
“In the early 1970s, I was getting around the country, jumping freight trains,” he says. “We got there around Christmas and it was pretty cold, and we had very little in the way of money, so we’d spend the night on the Staten Island Ferry, which only cost a nickel and you could ride back and forth all night, sleeping in what were pretty comfortable church pews. One night I played outside Carnegie Hall and passed the hat.
“So I can say I played Carnegie Hall, only not inside.”
Joe Ely
Opening act: The Twangtown Paramours
8 p.m. Sunday, Revolution Room, 300 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock
Admission: $20
(501) 823-0090
revroom.com
Weekend, Pages 39 on 10/25/2012