Singer-songwriter Joe Ely died today (Monday) surrounded by his family at home in Taos, New Mexico from complications of Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s and pneumonia at age 78.

His career got going in the early '70s as a member The Flatlanders with fellow Texans Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. They released their debut album, All American Music, in 1973, but disbanded not long after.

Heading out on a solo career, his breakthrough came in 1977 when he signed with MCA Records and went onto spend more than five decades recording and performing around the world.

In 2011 he told Lone Star Music magazine, “I made it this far. I had teachers tell me I wouldn’t make it to 21 when I was going to high school, so I beat the odds, you know? I’ve traveled millions of miles, zigging and zagging in every kind of vehicle known to man, trying to get from one place to another to create some more music.”

And while never a household name, he attracted an A-list of fans that included Linda Ronstadt, Paul McCartney, The Clash and Bruce Springsteen, who, when he inducted Ely into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2016 said his music has "that slight Southern country twang, it’s got a hint of rockabilly. It’s got the depth and emotion of Johnny Cash and it’s as deeply authentic as his Texas roots.”

And it took only three years of Ely releasing records for the Clash to pay tribute to him on 1980’s Sandinista!. “There ain’t no better blend,” sang Joe Strummer on “If Music Could Talk,” “than Joe Ely and his Texas men.” Ely would go on to sing backup vocals on the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and even record his own version of the song.

Ely was also apart of a KBCO Studio C session singing and playing along with Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Guy Clark.

Triple A Daily & Rolling Stone

Bret Saunders