The curtain has closed on Joe Ely’s phenomenal profession. The Texas-born country-rocker, who discovered fame as a solo artist and a member of the Flatlanders, died Monday at house in New Mexico from issues of Lewy Physique Dementia, Parkinson’s, and pneumonia, his rep confirmed to Rolling Stone. He was 78.
Ely performed an essential function within the growth of progressive and different nation music, bringing a rock ‘n’ roll affect to the style and serving to to domesticate an Austin music scene that reacted in opposition to the slick Nashville sound within the Seventies. However he wielded affect on rock as properly, making his mark on earnest, salt-of-the-earth icons like Bruce Springsteen and the Conflict’s Joe Strummer. Amongst rock followers, Ely could also be greatest identified for collaborating within the classes for the Conflict’s London Calling and opening for the legendary UK punk band on tour.
Born in Amarillo in 1947 and raised in Lubbock, Ely fashioned the Flatlanders with Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock within the early Seventies. The band’s sound was steeped in nation traditionalism but additionally had an ear for the counterculture, a mix that might echo by generations of alt-country musicians to return (together with Uncle Tupelo, with whom Ely later collaborated). Although they recorded a debut album in 1972, the Flatlanders broke up earlier than it might be launched. Years later, in spite of everything three members discovered solo success, these early recordings turned a topic of intrigue. Once they lastly noticed the sunshine of day in 1990, these tracks got here out beneath the title Extra a Legend Than a Band.
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After hanging out on his personal, Ely earned a take care of MCA by a reference to Jerry Jeff Walker. Ely’s first two albums, 1977’s self-titled and 1978’s Honky Tonk Masquerade, affirmed him as a key determine within the burgeoning nation music counterculture. Along with turning into “one of the main movers” of Austin’s progressive nation scene in line with All Music Information, he remained lively again house in Lubbock, organizing an annual all-star profit live performance known as the Twister Jam.
Ely steadily churned out albums all through the ‘80s and ‘90s, and as the new millennium approached, new opportunities beckoned. He won a Grammy for his 1999 album with the Latin country supergroup Los Super Seven alongside Rick Trevino and members of the Texas Tornados and Los Lobos. And when involvement with Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer precipitated a reunion with the Flatlanders, the band teamed up for a brand new album, 2002’s Now Once more.
Ely stayed lively each as a solo artist and a Flatlanders member all through the previous quarter-century, recording, gigging, and selecting up accolades corresponding to his 2016 stint because the official Texas State Musician. He launched his most up-to-date album, Love and Freedom, in February of this yr.
