Search - Joe Ely :: Down on the Drag

Third classic album

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 07/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the late seventies, Joe Ely built up a cult following (especially in Britain) with his brand of country rock music. He followed his brilliant debut (untitled) album with the outstanding Honky tonk masquerade. Next came this album, which was almost as outstanding. As far as I'm concerned, Joe has never come close to matching the brilliance of his first three albums since then, so is the last of his classic albums.



On this album, Joe's band was Lloyd Maines (steel guitar, slide acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar), Steve Keeton (drums), Jesse Taylor (electric guitar), Ponty Bone (accordion) and Gregg Wright (bass). This album also features guest musicians Ed Vizard (saxophone), Richard Bowden (fiddle), Dink Thomas (Throat whistle on Crawdad train) and David Mason (keyboards). Lloyd Maines eventually became a member of the family group, the Maines Brothers Band and later switched to producing records, but is perhaps most famous now as the father of Natalie, who has had more success with the Dixie Chicks than her father ever had.



Joe wrote five of the songs (Crazy lemon, Crawdad train, She leaves you where you are, Time for travelling, Maria), with his friend Butch Hancock providing four songs (Fools fall in love, Standing at the big hotel, In another world, Down on the drag). Ed Vizard (the saxophonist) wrote BBQ and foam. My favorites are Fools fall in love, Standing at the big hotel, Down on the drag and Maria.



While the music here is very different from both traditional country and contemporary country, it certainly has a country feel to it, even despite the accordion and other instruments not normally found on a country album. If you enjoy listening to music by such groups as Poco and the Eagles, you will probably enjoy this Joe Ely album and the other two I've mentioned."