Joe Ely (from the album Driven to Drive

Joe Ely (from the album Driven to Drive

Joe Ely (from the album Driven to Drive on Rack ‘Em Records/Thirty Tigers Records) (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
Rightly counted as one of the foremost architects of the regional West Texas sound, Joe Ely has maintained his prolific prowess for the past 50 years, both on his own and in collaboration with the on-again, off-again supergroup The Flatlanders, featuring pals Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. Given his credentials and creativity, it’s somewhat significant that Driven to Drive — a mantra of sorts — finds him a stripped-down setting, relying only on a series of bare bone arrangements to bring these songs to light.
 
Opening track “Drivin’ Man” provides an initial signature statement (‘he’s a trouble in motion, If he gets the notion…’), while setting up the tempestuous tone that generally lingers throughout. The feelings that inform these songs are both restless and relentless, although for the most part they take the form of basic Blues, and in the case of “Didn’t We Robbie”, a honky-tonk piano-plied Rocker. The loping pace of “Slave to the Western Wind” and “Odds of the Blues” infuse a good-natured calm into the proceedings, further defined by a lovely ballad, albeit given an antagonistic attitude, “Nashville Is a Catfish”.

That said, the song most likely to seize immediate attention is the one titled “Odds of the Blues” featuring The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, sharing the vocal. His presence is appropriate given the mutual respect they likely hold between them, and hopefully it will also help bring Joe Ely the further recognition he clearly deserves beyond his Southwestern environs. To be sure, Driven to Drive is, in many ways, a somewhat unassuming outing, and yet, at this point in his career, Joe Ely has little left to prove. Happily, though, he’s as driven as the title implies and will continue to be for quite some time to come. (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
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