Joe Ely is a son of the South Plains, born on February 9, 1947, in Lubbock, Texas, a city that has been home to numerous music legends, including rock and roll co-founder Buddy Holly, whose childhood home was unknown to Joe at the time.
As a teenager, Joe Ely practiced with a small country band, laying the foundation for his future music career. He co-founded The Flatlanders with prolific songwriter Butch Hancock and musician/actor Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who is also known for his role as "Smokey" in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski.
Joe Ely is best known as the leader of the long-lived Joe Ely Band, which has featured a variety of talented musicians over the years, including Lloyd Maines, Jesse Taylor, and Ponty Bone. The band enjoyed significant commercial success in the late 1970s and 1980s, primarily with the MCA label.
Joe Ely and guitarist Jesse Taylor were instrumental in establishing the weekly Stubbs Barbeque Jam at a small restaurant in Lubbock, which became a popular spot for live blues music. The jam was so well-attended that the site of the restaurant is now a historical monument.
Much of Joe Ely's work is autobiographical, including one early song that tells the story of his experiences working for a traveling carnival that survived a hurricane. He has been known to draw inspiration from his personal life and experiences, which has contributed to his unique sound and style.
Joe Ely's guitar of choice is a 1950s Gibson J-5, which he purchased on a beach in California. The guitar bears large circular rings on the front from sea shells that were glued on by the previous owner. When the seller failed to deliver the full amount of the purchase price, he kept the shells, leaving Joe to admire the decorative rings.
In the late 1970s, Joe Ely, country singer Tom T. Hall, and a few other musicians enjoyed a drunken game of billiards at Stubbs Barbeque, which resulted in Hall writing the song "The Great East Broadway Onion Championship of 1978."
Throughout his career, Joe Ely has remained a genuine salt-of-the-earth working musician who has persisted through both fame and famine. Despite never achieving the same level of commercial success as some of his peers, he is widely respected in west Texas as one of the best musicians of his generation.
