​Joe Ely (from the album Love + Freedom

​Joe Ely (from the album Love + Freedom

​Joe Ely (from the album Love + Freedom available on Rack ‘Em Records/Thirty Tigers) (by Bryant Liggett)
Joe Ely sounds great. At seventy-plus years he remains a Tex-Mex musical wonder and a treasure to the Austin, Americana. and beyond music scenes. On his latest release Love + Freedom, his signature croon is all over a record of Rootsy, Western Folk that hints to music from Mexican border. Joe Ely has always been killer, and this record shows that age certainly isn’t slowing the man down in his pursuit of releasing genre-crossing Roots Rock. 
The loose boogie of album opener “Shake ‘Em Up” is a wonderful kick off to the record while he nails a stripped-down version of Guy Clark’s “Magdalena”, which features a lonely accordion and an even lonelier Ely croon. Ryan Bingham joins in on “Deportee”, while “Waiting Around to Die” is a great blast of Tex-Mex Blues and “Sgt. Baylock” is a wonderfullly fun story about dealing with the law. “Here’s to the Brave” is a nod to the true inhabitants of the America, the Native People whose land was stolen from under them as “No One Wins” criticizes the political system with lines like ‘power feeds power’.
The West, politics, and existing traditional systems, both good and bad, are explored by Joe Ely; He’s an important musician whose hybrid sounds are great explorations of genres and places. (by Bryant Liggett)
Listen and buy the music of Joe Ely from AMAZON
 
Visit the Joe Ely website for more information