Album Review: Joe Ely – Silver City
It was barely a month ago that Joe Ely put out Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch, something he describes as the “rough and tumble” side of his road life. Today he released Silver City, an album of ten songs he wrote between 1968 and 1972 but weren’t recorded until the past year and a half. I didn’t review Rattlesnake Gulch here on The 9513, but I did listen to it and it wasn’t my particular style of music. After listening to Silver City I’m happy to say that I actually enjoyed the album. The album starts off with the title track, “Silver City,” which has been recorded before, but this time it’s just Ely. My favorite track “Wounded Knee” is a heavy duty song if you listen to the lyrics – “my daughter was raped by the calvary, I wish them all to hell.” Ely calls the album the “easy side” of things. It’s just his voice, the guitar, and some of the first songs he wrote when he was starting out; back before he performed with a band.
Basically if you’re looking for some good story songs from a legendary Texas Troubadour, Silver City is your album.
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
Is Dave Haywood going solo? This and many other of country music's most pressing questions answered in the September edition of The 9513's world famous Mailbag!
Caroline Herring likes to sing songs about life in the South. No, not exactly like Justin Moore and Jason Aldean...
The 9513's resident historian Paul W. Dennis sits down for a chat with country music legend Gene Watson.
As much as we love girl singers, we love songs about girl singers even more. Here's just a few of the many tribute songs out there.
Step away from the river and up to a jukebox, because heartbreak is only temporary, but a good song about drowning yourself—like a diamond—lasts forever.
What do you think about music labels "testing the waters" with a single before providing access to an artist's entire album? 
What country artist, young or old, would you recommend as a must-listen artist to a newcomer on his/her journey through country music, and what would your essential song picks be?Tagged In This Article
Current Discussion
- Matt: I'm glad you chose to review this as opposed to the new Joe Nichols album. Instead of complaining about bad ...
- Terry Ridont: I think its cool. Thats what I like about indy rock artists, everything isn't the same high budget packaging and ...
- Stormy: Jon: The problem is that the progressive country music is now being called Americana. And why is it ...
- Razor X: Maybe his brother did talk him into it but what’s to say he hasn’t ‘always loved’ and ‘wanted’ to ...
- Brian: Josh Kelley will be fine. At the very least it means Katherine Heigl may show up on country award shows regularly. ...
- Razor X: Change may be inevitable but we aren't required to support it and if enough people boycott it, it doesn't last ...
- Jon: "You can’t stop “progress”… We can if we try hard enough. Um, no. Not that I think "progress" is a good ...
- Joe: When she moved from Mercury to BNA, I think we were all just allowed to think there'd be some grand ...
- sam sam: Well, Suzie, maybe if I saw his live show I'd love him. But I'm not interested in attending concerts. Radio ...
- JOHN: Personally Sherrie s voice is as pure as it gets to me. Just listened to her demo songs after reading ...
2 Comments
RSS for comments on this post | Trackback URI for this post
March 6, 2007 at 4:51 pm Permalink
Who is that young kid! He looks about 12 in that picture. Thanks for the review.
I wish the Flatlanders would come back through town. I love those guys so much. Each one so talented, and together it’s dyn-o-mite.
March 7, 2007 at 9:01 am Permalink
Haha yea, I thought it was interesting that they used the particular picture. Some people might think it was an old album if they saw it on the shelf at a store.
Leave a Comment