I saw Joe Ely as part of a songwriters tour with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt and Guy Clark at the beautiful Chicago Theater. It was a great show, four songwriters, four stools and four guitars. Each took turns telling a story and then playing a song, sometimes accompanied with additional guitar from one of the others.

I was familiar with Lyle and John at the time but Joe and Guy were new to me. I was particularly impressed with Guy Clark but I thought Joe Ely was just fine. I honestly never did dig any deeper though beyond that show.

This album from 1978 starts off a little cajuny zydeco but ultimately it’s a bit too country twangy for my tastes.

To learn more about the 1001 Albums Project, I first wrote about it here.