Joe Ely - Live Shots
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Free Music Notes for Live Shots
Free Music Review: A classic!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This was my introduction to Joe Ely back in 1981. I'd read a review of Live Shots in Rolling Stone magazine which commented very favorably on the album and included an observation that it featured traditional country music instruments such as accordian and pedal steel guitar. I bought it without hearing a cut, figuring it was worth the punt. It sure was. Believe the other 5 star reviews, this is a ripping record and one of my all-time top 10.
I took it home, dropped the needle and was greeted with Reese Wynans' boogieing piano and 'Fingernails' opening line, "I keep my fingernails long so they click when I play the piano..." Joe's crack road band roars into life and one of the great live albums is off and rockin'.
I must have left the room at some point on side one, but then I heard something that made me go back to the stereo and start 'Long Snake Moan' all over. It was Lloyd Maines' steel guitar, played like I'd never heard it: overdriven and wailing, Duane Allman meets Buddy Emmons! His playing on that and several other cuts is not trad country, but it soars! Jesse Taylor on lead guitar takes great solos also and the guitar and steel harmony lines on 'Johnny's Blues' are electrifying.
The songs are great, the playing inspired and the live energy is palpable. I have most of Joe's releases, and there is not a dud among them, but this was my first experience of his music and it still sounds as dynamically fresh and vibrant as it did all those years ago.
If you like seriously rootsy, rocking country music, you will not be disappointed with 'Live Shots'.
Free Music Review: TOP FORM FOR JOE, BURNING WITH FIRE!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This has got to be one of the best live records ever! Joe was on fire, it seemed as if the energy of the Clash and the energy of Joe collided and exploded and this was the result. Buy it, but it now!
BTW, has this one been remastered?
Free Music Review: One of the Best Live Albums Ever!
Hit: 5 Stars
Joe Ely had recorded only three albums for MCA in the latter half of the seventies before recording this super-charged 1980 live set in London while on tour as the supporting act for the Clash. The album kicks off with a rousing rendition of the Joe Ely original "Fingernails" and for nearly an hour Ely's crack band (including pedal steel player Lloyd Maines and accordion player Ponty Bone) charges through one electrifying number after another.
In addition to his own tunes ("Honky Tonk Masquerade," "I Had My Hopes Up High," and "Johnny's Blues") Ely includes no fewer than four songs by fellow Texans Butch Hancock (including the classic "She Never Spoke Spanish to Me") and Jimmie Dale Gilmore ("Wishin' for You"). Ely also includes a cover of another Lubbock, TX legend--Buddy Holly--with a high energy version of "Not Fade Away."
The original vinyl album included a bonus 4-track live disk called TEXAS SPECIAL, which is also included here. While Ely has recorded numerous first-rate albums during his 30-year career (including 1978's classic HONKY TONK MASQUERADE), LIVE SHOTS features what is unarguably his best band and is an excellent place to introduce yourself to Ely's combination of western, honky-tonk and rockabilly. [Running Time - 54:21] VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Free Music Review: National Treasure....
Hit: 5 Stars
With over 40 years behind him amazing audiences, and an accolade from Bruce Springsteen himself, declaring him the greatest live performer alive, Joe Ely's steadfast inability to crack the mainstream remains one of life's great mysteries. Born in Buddy Holly's hometown of Lubbock Texas, Ely came up in the late '60's outlaw-country ferment in Austin, where he teamed up with fellow Lone Star visionaries Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore to form The Flatlanders, who released a country/folk/rock 'n roll classic on a par with Big Pink and Sweethearts of the Rodeo, which landed with a resounding thud. By '77, Joe had signed to MCA, and formed a phenomenal band who fused Texas road house rock and hard country. They released 4 classic albums, and this live album is a souvenir from a British tour where he opened for The Clash c.1979. Live Shots showcases the best tunes off of Joe's early solo work, except he bends and stretches his high lonesome tenor to the utmost, while his band matches him blow for blow every step of the way, lead guitar dueling with accordian and pedal steel in frantic honky-tonk/punk-rock rave-ups. Joe had the benefit not only of his own considerable songwriting gifts, he also had contributions from the songbooks of Gilmore and Hancock, who both write like Merle Haggard after a week-end with various controlled substances, paying hommage to the honk-tonk tradition while not unmindful of post-Dylan developments. (Favorite Hancock couplet from "Fools Fall in Love:" "A wise man hits the bottom/But a fool falls right on through.")
This record captures the raw excitement of Ely at full-throttle, and for my money is one of the finest live country-rock discs ever.
Free Music Review: Alt Country When Alt Country Wasn't Cool!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I remember listeing to this album back when it first came out in 1980 and being absolutely swepted away by Ely's energy and presence. This album made me a lifelong fan and is one of my favorite's.
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