Joe Ely Band
Album: Live Shots
Released: 1980
Good luck trying to pigeonhole Joe Ely. His music is often lumped into a vague rockabilly category, but he won a Grammy award for best Mexican / Mexican-American album with the supergroup Los Super Seven, and he’s more than comfortable strumming country ballads. Live Shots is none of the above. This high octane album was recorded live in London while Ely was winning British punk fans over while touring with The Clash.
It was an electric time in their career. The Clash had just released their mega-hit London Calling and were riding a surge of popularity that propelled them to the zenith of rock stardom. Choosing Texas country-rocker Joe Ely to share the moment with them is surprising at surface level, but the musicians had forged a bond stronger than the Atlantic was wide. Guitarist Mick Jones told the Austin American-Statesman, “You have to understand Joe Ely is a special case…He fits into the scheme of things here.”
Ely combined Texas sized swagger with an understated confidence. He described the London shows saying, “I think I can give off the same kind of energy level they can. See, I like songs with some guts to them. I like music that hits with a punch.” He is swinging haymakers on Live Shots and willing to admit that, “maybe we play with more intensity when we are playing outside of those Lubbock honky-tonks.”
A significant contribution to the magic of the album is the virtuosic steel guitar work from Lloyd Maines. He’s a legend in Texas music now, and was inducted into the inaugural class of the ACL Hall of Fame alongside Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan, but he was just a twenty-eight year old with a budding reputation at the time of this recording. His pedal steel is woven throughout the album but erupts into a series of electrifying solos on the finale track “Boxcars”.
Joe Strummer suggested naming the album Lubbock Calling in a wink at The Clash’s new album, but in the end they chose the imaginative Live Shots title instead. It was a missed opportunity, but even without companion titles the punk influences are evident. This wasn’t the final chapter in the special friendship. The Clash memorialized this time with a lyric on their next album Sandinista! – Well there ain’t no better band than Joe Ely and his Texas men, and Ely would team up with them again to add background vocals to “Should I Stay Or Should I Go?”
The Chilton
Lubbock has a signature cocktail, presumably based on the way Dr. Chilton used to order his post-golf beverage at the country club. It’s a refreshing blend of vodka, lemon juice, and soda water in a highball glass with a salted rim. Nobody remembers who Dr. Chilton is, or when he concocted this zesty beverage, but it has been on Lubbock cocktail menus for as long as the oldest bartender in town can remember. The town is proud of it, and celebrates Chilton Day every September with lemon themed yard games and shots of vodka. It’s a perfect cocktail to sip while listening to the Lubbock-raised Joe Ely Band.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ ounces vodka
- 2 ounces fresh lemon juice
- Soda water
- Coarse salt
- Lemon wheel
Directions
- Salt the rim of a highball glass
- Fill with ice and add vodka and lemon juice
- Top with soda water and stir gently
- Garnish with lemon wheel
