Audio CD review:
Joe Ely - Streets of Sin

Joe Ely - Streets of Sin

Band: Joe Ely Title: Streets of Sin Rating: Release Date: 15 July, 2003 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Fightin’ For My Life 2: I’m On The Run Again 3: A Flood On Our Hands 4: All That You Need 5: Run Little Pony 6: Streets of Sin 7: 95 South 8: Carnival Bum 9: Twisty River Bridge 10: That’s Why I Love You Like I Do 11: Wind’s Gonna Blow You Away 12: I Gotta Find Ol’ Joe

Editoral Review His tried-and-true West Texas sound, with a tad more organ than usual, seems to benefit from the studio sabbatical (interrupted only by his role in the Flatlanders). There are no real surprises on Ely's first solo album of new material in six years, but that's no putdown. The opening "Fightin' for My Life" certainly has a harder edge than many recent rockers, for instance; and while his protagonists continue as always to try to fight nature to a draw ("A Flood on Our Hands"), to run harder than ever just to stay a step ahead of their own shadows ("Streets of Sin"), or to simply get by ("All That You Need"), there's a humane snarl accompanying their struggles that the singer hasn't unleashed in some time. All roads may lead back to those dusty, windy plains, but Ely evokes the terrain and the lives it shapes with the intensity of his earliest, and best, work. --John Morthland .. You can see a complete list of all Joe Ely discography, or go back to the Joe Ely tabs