Joe Ely

McGonigel’s Mucky Duck presents Joe Ely. TWO SHOWS!

He’s never had a Top 10 single, none of his albums have gone platinum, and yet Joe Ely has carved a unique–and influential — niche for himself during nearly 25 years as a solo performer.

His incomparable stories overflow with humanity and humor, not to mention an idiosyncratic West Texas perspective.  He was “alt country” before the genre existed and can be justly credited as a fountainhead of that movement.

Ely stands in a tradition that includes Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Tanya Tucker, Guy Clark, Delbert McClinton, Don Walser, Terry Allen, Lloyd Maines, his daughter Natalie Maines, and Ely’s enduring musical partners, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Ely lives in Austin now and spends much of his life on the road.  But when he’s accumulated enough song ideas, Lubbock is where Joe heads.  “Somehow, just driving for hours down those country roads is still the best place for me finish my songs.”