BARBARA FG
JOE ELY
Joe Ely’s Aug. 2 album, Driven to Drive, will include a collaboration with Bruce Springsteen, “Odds of the Blues,” that has been released as its lead single. You can watch the video — directed by Matthew Eskey and featuring home video footage shot by Ely, his wife Sharon and their families over the years — below.
“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 in a press release. “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 song 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.’ ”
In 1995, Springsteen sang on “All Just to Get to You,” on Ely’s Letter to Laredo album.
The two have also performed together numerous times over the years. Below is a video of them onstage together in 2012.
For more on Ely, visit ely.com.
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