Ely is "Driven To Drive"

With 23 albums under the West Texas native's belt, "Driven To Drive" is Ely's first road album, featuring a collection of songs inspired by his travels from different eras of his five-decade. The first single is "Odds of the Blues" (feat. Bruce Springsteen). The video was directed by Matthew Eskey and pulls from home video footage shot by Joe Ely, his wife Sharon and their families over the years.

"I got the idea for the song from hanging out at an all night after hours joint on the edge of east Lubbock called TV's... there was always a dice game in the back room, the pool table had a bad lean, and the jukebox mainly played old blues songs," said Ely. "I wrote the song later when I put my studio together in Austin. I asked Bruce recently if he would like to sing with me on this , and he said he'd love to. We've been long lost friends for a long time. One of my memories of us singing together was in Dublin, Ireland when we both got on stage with Jerry Lee Lewis and Shane MacGowan and sang 'Great Balls of Fire.'"

Self-produced by Ely, "Driven To Drive" stitches together recordings over several decades at Spur Studios, his home recording facility outside of Austin, assisted by musician/neighbors Joel Guzman on accordion, keyboardist Bill Guinn, singer Eddie Beethoven, fiddler Richard Bowden, guitarist Jeff Plankenhorn and engineer Pat Manske who added percussion.

"Driven T o Drive" is the follow-up to Ely's 2022 album, "Flatland Lullaby." He also 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.

"I've been traveling all my life in search of whatever I find," said Ely. "Revisiting some of my studio files, I noticed there were a lot of songs I had written on the road about traveling. I had recorded them in my studio every time I got off the road. I compiled a selection of songs like that from different eras. That's 'Driven To Drive'."

The track list is:
1. Drivin' Man
2. Odds of the Blues (featuring Bruce Springsteen)
3. For Your Love
4. Watchin' Them Semis Roll
5. Didn't We Robbie
6. Nashville Is A Catfish
7. Ride Motorcycle
8. San Antone Brawl
9. Slave to the Western Wind
10. Gulf Coast Blues
11. Driven To Drive
12. Jackhammer Rock