Compiled by Stacy Keith/ Interview conducted by Chuck Luck and Abi Avitia
Cary Banks remembers Joe Ely as a rare kind of artist: charismatic onstage, quiet offstage, and always full of a kind of energy that seemed to spark the room the moment he walked in. Cary knew him through the tight knit West Texas music circles that connected bands, venues, and friendships. Cary also worked for Jack T’s Music World (a music store owned by Jack Tyson). Joe and Jesse “Guitar” Taylor would come by the store occasionally. One day, Joe brought the cassette of his first album to the store and Cary was lucky enough to be one of the first to hear that album as they sat in the parking lot and played it in Joe’s van.
Cary was part of the Maines Brothers Band, they did many shows with Joe, often opening for him. Free Whiskey (another band Cary was in) opened for him often at Coldwater Country (a popular country bar and dance club in the 70’s and 80’s), and Cary remembers those nights as something magical. Cary reflected, “Joe had a way of controlling an audience”. He continued and laughed, “Two things would happen — the place would go crazy (electric), and something of mine got broke.”
One of Cary’s favorite stories involves the Panhandle Mystery Band with Terry Allen. There was an art exhibit in Santa Fe, and Terry planned to do a concert tied to the exhibit. He had the infamous Stubbs cater the event with Little Pete (a regular presence around Stubbs Bar-B-Q who was part of the character and charm of the venue), and Joe Ely and his group came by to hang out. Then Ely jumped onstage. Cary laughed remembering what happened next: “Ely starts pulling people out of the audience onto the stage. By the time we finished the song, everyone in the building was on the stage.”
Another legendary story came right before the third Tornado Jam (Ely’s music festival). A group of high school students from Monterey and Coronado wanted to throw their own prom, so they rented the Cotton Club and hired the Maines Brothers. The students showed up and were having a great time. The Maines Brothers had also done school assemblies and spring dances at TTU for area high school fans, so they already had a following. Around 11:00 p.m., Linda Ronstadt, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Joe Ely walked in. It was the eve of one of the Tornado Jams, and suddenly the prom became an unforgettable event. “Linda Ronstadt is singing at our prom the kids were saying!” Cary remembered. Everyone was there, including Terry Allen. At midnight, the electricity was cut to get everyone to leave. There were about 200 people there that night, though over the years about 500 people have claimed they were – it was that infamous of an event.
Cary also remembers Joe’s role in connecting people. He connected Stevie Ray Vaughan with Stubbs, whom Cary described as “a big old gentle bear.” Stubbs was a tiny place and always struggled to pay the bills, so Ely helped organize a big fundraiser in Austin. The Sunday night jams there became famous, and artists like George Thorogood played them. Joe loved places like that, and he loved the people who built them. Cary also points to the legendary Onion Championship and Tom T. Hall as part of that broader, mythic Texas music world.
Ely, Cary says, was a gypsy too. He played many shows with him, and there was even such a thing as “Ely time” — meaning the concert started whenever Joe was ready. He had fabulous musicians around him, including Steve Meador and Lloyd Maines, and he was never afraid to share the stage. “He led the band and he led the audience,” Cary said. The audience gave back the same love Joe poured into the room.
One memory Cary treasures is Joe starting “Fingernails” out of tune while Lloyd Maines quietly reached up and tuned the guitar as Joe played. Another came at Coldwater Country, when Joe played to a packed crowd of 2,000. The front door was way at the back, but Ely arrived at the front door on horseback, rode up to the stage, and got off the horse right there. Cary compared him to Bruce Springsteen in that he had a similar kind of electricity and loved to perform.
Songs and style
He notes that Joe became a worldwide star even without much radio play. His music reached far beyond Texas, especially after The Roadie soundtrack and “West Texas Waltz” in Hard Country. He toured all over the world and built a major following in Europe. His first album was especially personal, with songs that felt autobiographical and rooted in lived experience. “Fingernails” was particularly popular in Europe, and songs like “All Just to Get to You” and “Me and Billy the Kid” showed that Joe was not writing ordinary country songs. He was aiming for something deeper, more direct, and more human.
Joe also loved and respected good songwriters, including Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. He experimented with digital recording and synthesizers on Hi-Res, always willing to try new sounds without chasing trends. What set him apart, Cary says, was his gift for taking other writers’ songs and making them his own. He trusted his intuition. He never tried to copy anybody else. Instead, he blended country and folk traditions with blues guitar and turned them into something fresh.
When he first started playing folk clubs like The Attic and The Inner Ear, he used a harmonica in the spirit of Bob Dylan. Cary remembers seeing him backstage at Lubbock Lights with Lloyd Maines and Sonny Curtis in 2017, it was the last time he would see him.
Lubbock and legacy
Cary also reflects on the music scene in Lubbock and the way Joe fit into it. People wanted to dance, so bands had to be tight. Music, he says, is built on rhythm. People went to clubs both to dance and to listen, and that made for a very different kind of scene. Jazz influences, school dances, and disciplined live bands all helped shape the environment. Ely left a big hole when he moved on, and it took a long time for the scene to regenerate. Cary believes things are healthier now, and he points to the early 1990s, when Don Caldwell began helping bring music back to Lubbock.
He also sees later artists like Pat Green as having learned from the model set by the Maines Brothers and Joe Ely’s band. For Cary, the core ideas behind the music were freedom and energy — the kind of energy that’s inside your soul that has to get out.
Joe’s songwriting, Cary believes, was worthy of study. He wrote in basic song forms but expanded them with a storyteller’s instinct. He knew how to open a song with a line that immediately pulled listeners in. His songs were singable and playable, but they also gave musicians room to do their own thing underneath him. He understood structure, and he used it to tell stories with impact. Cary’s favorite Joe Ely song is Honky Tonk Masquerade.
Cary points to a few of Joe’s hooks as examples of how he could use a great opening phrase to pull people into his songs:
- “You sure look fine tonight” from “Honky Tonk Masquerade.”
- “If you were a bluebird, you’d be a sad one” from “If You Were a Blue Bird.”
- “I keep my fingernails long, so they click when I play the piano” from “Fingernails.”
Cary describes Joe as shy, gentle, and generous, a man who lived for the love of his life – Sharon. He was kind, never mean, and never met a stranger. Cary played “Fingernails” with Joe onstage several times and still sees him as an inspiration to West Texas and a central figure in its musical identity. As Cary put it, Joe could fit “a novel’s worth of story in 3 minutes like all great songwriters.”
Check out Cary’s favorite song: Honky Tonk Masquerade here: Joe Ely Honky Tonk Masquerade
Cary C. Banks is a West Texas musician, songwriter, music educator, and author based in Lubbock, Texas. A longtime member of the Maines Brothers Band, he has performed with a wide range of artists and was inducted into the West Texas Walk of Fame. Banks is also an award-winning songwriter, a former music instructor and department chair at South Plains College, and the author of Almost Like a Professional: My Life and Career as a West Texas Musician.
Photo submitted by Cary Banks – L to R: Richard Bowden, Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Cary C. Banks, Kenny Maines, Donnie Maines, Lloyd Maines and C.B. Stubblefield backstage at a Terry Allen art show and concert in Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1982. Photo courtesy of Chuck Lanehart.