Joe Ely – Love And Freedom
Joe Ely – Love And Freedom
Format: CD
Label: Thirty Thigers
Release: 2025
Release date: February 7, 2025
Joe Ely unearths buried treasure for his twenty-ninth solo album, ‘Love And Freedom’
The thirteen tracks that make up Love and Freedom are a healing elixir for the world’s emotional turmoil. “These songs are a little radical,” Joe says. I feel like it is a good time to stand up and speak out.” “The way we express ourselves is through our art and music,” adds Sharon Ely, Joe’s wife and creative partner.
Ely recorded the songs—with themes of immigration, poverty, war, justice, love, freedom, and other social issues—over several decades at his own Spur Studios. He saved the songs in a folder titled Love and Freedom and stumbled on the folder in the fall of 2024. One challenge. The songs were rough mix demos, but multi-tracks from the sessions had disappeared.
Sharon suggested turning the files over to musician, friend, and magic-making producer Lloyd Maines. “Joe has always set the bar high,” Maines says. “Without options to remix multi-tracks, we had to be creative to find the right sound.” Maines layered instruments on to the tracks, adding acoustic, slide guitar and bass. “Joe’s vocal is just killer and having that as a grounding point is fantastic,” he says. Maines worked with Pat Manske at the Zone Recording Studio in Dripping Springs, Texas, and brought in long-time Ely sidekick David Grissom to add his singular guitar licks to a couple of songs. Joel Guzman played accordion on the original tracks. Ely produced and played guitar, harmonica and percussion on the original recordings.The result is another remarkable and authentic Joe Ely album with nine originals, and four covers of favorite songs by other writers. Ely sings the hell out of Townes Van Zandt’s “Waiting Around To Die” and “For the Sake of the Song.” His voice yearns on Guy Clark’s “Magdalene” and haunts the Woody Guthrie classic “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” which features singer-songwriter and Yellowstone star Ryan Bingham on vocals.
The first single from Love and Freedom is “Shake ‘Em Up,” which Ely describes as “an ode to dice games in the Wild West.” He wrote “No One Wins” after touring Ground Zero shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks. “Adios Sweet Marie” is about the border troubles in Texas. “Here’s to the Brave” celebrates Native Americans. “Sergeant Baylock,” not his real name, is about a police officer in Lubbock who hassled Joe relentlessly. “He threw me in jail every time he saw me,” Joe says. Heady songs about social justice—“Today It Did,” “Band of Angels,” “What Kind of War,” and “Surrender to the West”—round out the collection.
Website: https://www.ely.com/
Tracks:
01. Shake ‘Em Up
02. Adios Sweet Dreams
03. Magdalene – Written by Guy Clark
04. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) (feat. Ryan Bingham – Written by Woody Guthrie
05. Waitin’ Around To Die – Written by Townes Van Zandt
06. Sergeant Baylock
07. Today It Did
08. Band Of Angels
09. For The Sake Of The Song
10. Here’s To The Brave
11. What Kind Of War
12. No One Wins
13. Surrender To The West