Love + Freedom (Rack 'Em, 2025)

Ever since Joe Ely released "Love in the Midst of Mayhem" during the pandemic in 202O, he's dug into his catalog to produce three more albums, the latest being "Love and Freedom," to hit just two days before his 78th birthday. His voice remains as strong as ever as Ely confesses that some of these songs are more radical than one might expect. It's his way of urging us to stand up and speak out. These are themes of immigration, poverty, war, justice, freedom and other social issues, songs that he has accumulated over several decades.

The songs were rough mix demos, but the multi-tracks had disappeared. Ely turned to trusted collaborator Lloyd Maines to lay acoustic, slide guitar and bass. Maines brought in longtime Ely band mates like accordionist Joel Guzman and guitarist David Grissom. Ely produced, played guitar, harmonica and percussion on these nine originals and four covers.

The opening track and single shows us that Ely hasn't lost his rocking instincts, as he said last year on the release of "Driven to Drive" - "I was born out on the highway in a lane called fast." "Shake 'Em Up" is as Ely says, an ode to dice games in the Wild West. Ely plays all the instruments, including synthesizer and electric drums. He tackles immigration with the Tex-Mex "Adios Sweet Dreams" with Guzman, singing about the border and later covers Guthrie's iconic "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" with Ryan Bingham helping on vocals. It's a passionate rendition.

Ely somehow takes the devastating dirge out of Townes Van Zandt's "Waiting Around To Die" and "For the Sake of the Song." He nods to another songwriting idol Guy Clark's "Magdalene" with stellar support from Guzman.

He wrote "No One Wins" after touring Ground Zero shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "Here's to the Brave" celebrates Native Americans. The 'radical' songs are "Today It Did," "Band of Angels," "Surrender to the West" and "What Kind of War," the latter with the blistering guitar of Grissom and lyrics like these -"Would you fight with bullets, bombs and flame/Force your enemy into submission?/Would you fight with books, blankets and bread/And tools of intuition."

Joe Ely is as vital and even more relevant than he's ever been.