Joe Ely, Guero's

Click image for more ...

I've told this story before, but on the occasion of Joe's passing (December 2025) I'll tell it again. I've filed this in our blog on the day of the event.

On the last day of our winter retreat to Austin, Wednesday March 5, 2014, we loaded up our car (I'm not sure how we got all the gear in but we did) and headed up to the Little Longhorn Saloon on Burnet in north Austin. We were curious about this bar and hadn't found the opportunity to visit. It's famous for Sunday afternoon "Chicken Shit Bingo" (use your imagination) and hot nights where the band plays to a crowded dance floor. We didn't catch either of those but have high hopes for next year.

What we did catch that night was a smoking live show by Joe Ely at Guero's. We just happened onto that event. This was the best of all our music experiences -- the lucky happenstance of catching Joe Ely's live to radio KDRP at Geuro's on our last night in town was definitely "One for the Book". We were aware of the KDRP radio broadcasts but hadn't investigated who played at them (they're not listed in the Chronicle). We had stopped into a pizza joint across the street (Home Slice Pizza) and recognized Joe voice singing when we got out of the car. We dashed over and caught the last half hour of the set. We wish we had known before hand.

Joe had with him Warren Hood on violin and Jeff Plankenhorn on guitar. We were aware of who Joe was, and had several of his albums (our friend Pat was keen on Joe, Butch and Jimmie of the Flatlanders) but we had never had the opportunity to see him. This was the first time.

The album at left is pretty much all the pictures we took at the show.