Joe Ely
Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch (Rack ‘Em)
Although four years have passed since Joe Ely’s last studio release, 2003’s Streets of Sin – bracketed by 2000’s Live at Antone’s and ’04’s Hightone Records compilation Settle for Love – Austin’s onetime train-hopping troubadour comes roaring back for his 60th birthday with Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch. AARP will have to wait on the West Texan because there’s no sign of easing up here, nor of Ely giving any less than his 1000%. The evidence lies in Rattlesnake Gulch‘s dynamic performances, conforming to what we’ve come to expect in the Lord of the Highway and Flatlander. From the post-Katrina ode “Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes” to “River Fever,” a love song to River City, Ely’s songwriting is as hearty and varied as ever. The sole exception, “Miss Bonnie and Mister Clyde,” is a forced rewrite of “Me and Billy the Kid,” but the reinterpretation of Butch Hancock’s “Firewater” into a horn-filled funkfest is inspired. You’d have to go to Ely’s homestead just outside of town to see him weed out critters from the Rattlesnake Gulch behind his house with a shotgun, but barring that, these Happy Songs are all the shooting gallery necessary.
This article appears in February 9 • 2007.