Today, GRAMMY Award-winning singer-songwriter Joe Ely has released his 29th solo album Love and Freedom via Rack ‘Em Records / Thirty Tigers. A healing elixir for the world’s emotional turmoil, this timely album features songs written by the prolific Texas native as well as by some of his musical heroes including Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and Woody Guthrie.
The new album has already garnered praise from PopMatters, Holler, The Bluegrass Situation and Glide Magazine, who raved, “Five plus decades on, one of our greatest troubadours, Joe Ely, keeps pushing forward.”
Co-produced alongside frequent collaborator Lloyd Maines (Miranda Lambert, Kris Kristofferson), Love and Freedom unveils songs from Ely’s recording vault from several decades at Spur Studios, his home studio facility. He first recorded these songs – with themes of immigration, poverty, war, justice, love, freedom, and other social issues – during time spent off the road and brought them to Maines to polish them up for release. The end result features highlights like the rollicking “Shake ‘Em Up” as well as poignant renditions of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee” (featuring Ryan Bingham) and the heartfelt Guy Clark cut, “Magdalene.”
Love and Freedom follows Ely’s 2024 official road album Driven to Drive, which was released to widespread acclaim from Pitchfork, American Songwriter, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, No Depression and more. In addition to his revered solo work, he is one-third of the Texas-based trio The Flatlanders along with Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. In 2021, the band released Treasure of Love, their first album in over 12 years which had The Austin Chronicle raving in their five-star review, “Perfect in vision, voice, harmony – not to mention timing – Treasure of Love delivers quintessential Flatlanders.”
Over the course of his long and eclectic career – as a songwriter, performer, collaborator, and author – Joe Ely has altered and expanded the meaning of Texas music while taking those sounds and this place around the world. Love and Freedom marks yet another milestone for Ely, one that celebrates the power of unity through song during these divisive times.
Love and Freedom Tracklist:
1. Shake ‘Em Up
2. Adios Sweet Dreams
3. Magdalene – Written by Guy Clark
4. Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) [feat. Ryan Bingham] – Written by Woody Guthrie
5. Waitin’ Around to Die – Written by Townes Van Zandt
6. Sergeant Baylock
7. Today It Did
8. Band of Angels
9. For the Sake of the Song
10. Here’s to the Brave
11. What Kind of War
12. No One Wins
13. Surrender to the West
