Subscribe for 1 or 2 emails a week with new content
Honky Tonk Masquerade - Joe Ely (1978)
This was a really fun listen. I knew Joe Ely but I hadn’t heard this early release of his. It’s a rollicking set of country-style rock and honky tonk, mixed with some great ballads.
Boxcars was written by his once and future Flatlanders bandmate and fellow scenester Butch Hancock. It’s a haunting tune that sounds great. Fingernails could fit on any country station in the modern day as well.
There are a handful of places where you get synth stabs where you’d expect to hear horns, but maybe it was all done on a tight budget.
The album closes with a one-two punch of West Texas Waltz (another Hancock tune) and the Hank Williams Sr classic Honky Tonkin’ to finish out with a bang.
