Joe Ely was a country-rock pioneer from west Texas who brought a new audience to country music. In Britain, he won over punk fans thanks to his friendship with the Clash, with whom he formed a perhaps unlikely alliance after the band had watched him playing in London in 1979. They invited him to their London Calling recording sessions, and then decided to work with him. He opened for them at concerts in the US – including a show in Ely’s home town of Lubbock – and they toured together in the UK. In 1982 Ely sang backing vocals (in Spanish) on the Clash hit Should I Stay Or Should I Go. The band’s guitarist Mick Jones said of him: “Ely is a special case. He’s young, he’s doing exactly what he wants to do.”
Ely, who has died aged 78 after suffering from Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease, had eclectic taste. A gifted singer and songwriter, he mixed country, rock, Tex-Mex and folk influences in his music, which ranged from songs of travel and west Texas life to brawny or witty stories inspired by Woody Guthrie. Alongside his own songs he often included work by other new songwriters – including Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, with whom he had lived in Lubbock and formed a band, the Flatlanders. Their recordings were initially a commercial failure (they released an unsuccessful single and an eight-track cassette in 1973), but would later be hailed as country classics.
