| Streets of Sin - Joe Ely | |
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Reviewed by Kathy Coleman
It's been a long while since Joe Ely, the Poet Laureate of the Austin country music scene, released an album of new music. Not that this powerhouse of stoic talent has been idle. Since 1998's Twistin' in the Wind, Joe has been working hard with groups such as Los Super Seven, a power group of Mexicano all-stars such as Freddy Fender, Rick Trevino, Flaco Jimenez and David Hidalgo (to name but a few), and
he's also released the acclaimed Live at Antoine's.
Ely has been recording his own style of true Western country music for over 25 years. In the early 80's, Time Magazine proclaimed his album "Musta Gotta Notta Lotta" as country's best, if unheard, of the year. But Joe Ely had worked hard to get that far, and never once did he compromise his rawboned, fierce, gritty edge to produce the sort of music he presents here, on his newest album, Streets of Sin.
Ely's lyrics weave a tapestry of imagery and imagination, weary worlds and dirt roads, the elegance of diamonds in dust. His words display a stark image, always captivating and never obvious or sentimental. This is the hard, cold edge of Texas country. Ely is a poet in the same category with other Texas mavericks such as Robert Earl Keen and Charlie Robison, but with his own sharp style delivering such lines as "You don't ever miss what you ain't got until you wake up one morning and you've lost the whole lot. We got a flood on our hands and the rain's gonna keep comin' down" in "A Flood on Our Hands." Ely's straightforward, unadorned vocals deliver his words with the grim certainty of a prophet. He makes no apology for displaying the world as it is. "Don't talk to me right now, I've got survival on my mind," is a sharply-delivered line in the opening song, "Fightin' For My Life," comment and commentary on the difficulty in just getting by in today's world.
But Joe knows there's joy in life, too. He sings of those brighter emotions, as well, but with the realism that makes country music country. In "That's Why I Love You Like I Do," he gives us a love song of real love, the kind that lasts. "Because you knew I needed laughter, 'cause it heals the wounded fool, because you saw the near hereafter, that's why I love you like I do." The gentle melody wraps a richness of sound around the tender lyrics, a flavor of Tejano accordion and a steady, almost hypnotic drum. There're layers upon layers of meaning in this song.
On "95 South" Ely charges into a driving rockabilly sound, terrific guitar licks thundering to a steady beat that forms a foundation for the fun lyrics. The title track, the elegant "Streets of Sin," is wistful and longing, a "could I come back home?" plea, "would you open your screen, let a poor boy in, if I come back home off the streets of sin?" With a laid-back grooving Western rhythm, again laced with the cozy
warmth of accordion (I don't have the complete credits for this disc, but I'd hazard a guess from the style that the player is Flaco Jimenez) Ely warns, "Wind's Gonna Blow You Away," "someday when your bones turn to dust."
He wraps up with the eerie, haunting refrain, "I Gotta Find Ol' Joe," half spoken, half sung to a gentle samba-esque tune with gentle guitar used to startling effect.
Music this good deserves to be heard. Ely's western style of Texas music isn't "alternative" country, it's just plain country, the way country should always have been. The hardness and harshness of life tempered by true emotions and fragile humanity, this is what country music is all about.
Song List:
Album cover, used with permission of Rounder.
Sound clips courtesy of Barnes & Noble.