ACL 8th Annual Hall of Fame Honors Joe Ely

-The 8th annual "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame honors, a celebration of the artists who've made "Austin City Limits" the longest-running music program in television history.

This year, we honor and induct Sheryl Crow and Texas's own Joe Ely.

In the second of two episodes, we celebrate the music of Joe Ely, with guests Marcia Ball, Rodney Crowell, and from The Flatlanders, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

It's part 2 of the 8th annual "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame honors.

The "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame was created to honor the artists who contributed to the legacy of the longest-running music program in television history.

In this second of two episodes, we celebrate Joe Ely.

-♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ -From his "Austin City Limits" songwriter's special performance in 2008.

[ "All Just to Get to You" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ From the California shore, where the mighty ocean roars ♪ ♪ To the land of the Hopi and the Sioux ♪ ♪ I walked the desert sand ♪ ♪ Across the Rio Grande ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I have stumbled on the plain ♪ ♪ Staggered in the wind ♪ ♪ Stood at a crossroad or two ♪ ♪ Cried to a river ♪ ♪ Swept to the sea ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I ran too hard ♪ ♪ I played too rough ♪ ♪ I gave my love ♪ ♪ Not near enough ♪ ♪ I bled too red ♪ ♪ I cried too blue ♪ ♪ I beat my fist ♪ ♪ Against the moon ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Hoo!

-Here's Joe from his "Austin City Limits" appearance in 1979.

-♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ And I finally got a ride with a preacher man ♪ ♪ Told me that the wicked would be buried in sand ♪ ♪ Don't know why I did it, but I lost control ♪ ♪ I said, "Hey, papa, would you save my soul?"

♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ ♪ And I finally got a ride on a carnival train ♪ ♪ Nearly blew away in a hurricane ♪ ♪ Got to thinkin' 'bout that preacher down in Louisianne ♪ ♪ Now I'm sittin' on the Delta, siftin' sand ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] I saw Jerry Lee Lewis playing on a flatbed trailer, selling cars in Amarillo, Texas.

And I thought, "Boy, that looks like fun."

-One thing about Joe, I never witnessed him doing a show that he didn't give 110%.

I mean, he burned it down every night.

It didn't matter if it was a corporate party or opening for The Clash, I mean, Joe brought 110% and just -- just absolutely pulverized the crowd.

-From the very beginning, Joe already had this -- the stage presence and the -- the charisma, the, like, uh... Just power on stage that, uh -- that he still has.

You know, it was -- I don't know.

Was just some magical thing.

-Joe Ely is one of the foundational artists when it comes to what "Austin City Limits" is, what it stands for.

By 1980, Joe Ely was on his way to becoming a superstar.

This guy from West Texas, from -- from Lubbock, was really making his mark way beyond West Texas.

And he was prime for picking when it came to "ACL."

-He was so wide-ranging early on.

Joe started doing that blending all these -- these different forms before it was fashionable.

To Joe's absolute credit, he never did go for just what was stylish or what was -- what was current.

He went for what was fun for him.

-"Austin City Limits" was the perfect stage, and it fit right in with what we were doing, how we were mixing different genres of music.

-He can't be pigeonholed into one genre or the other.

He just does Joe Ely music.

And I think that's why Joe has had so much longevity with his career, is there are there are a lot of people out there that like that aspect.

-It would be very hard for me to state strongly enough how much I regard and love I have for Joe Ely.

He's -- He's been an extremely important part of my life.

But just personally and -- and artistically, I can't even imagine my world without him.

-Please welcome Pulitzer Award-winning writer and journalist Lawrence Wright.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.

It's always been a mystery to me how the Panhandle, which has never been known for being an artistic mecca, produced Jimmy Dean, Sonny Curtis, Tanya Tucker, Mac Davis, Delbert McClinton, Gary P. Nunn, Lloyd and Natalie Maines, the Gatlin Brothers, and many others, some of them to be named later.

Except for the two years that Georgia O'Keeffe spent in Canyon, Texas, painting watercolors, they're all musicians.

Joe was born in Amarillo, which is where he first encountered rock 'n' roll in the form of Jerry Lee Lewis playing piano in a flatbed trailer in a dust storm.

The audience covered their noses with bandanas, and the wind blew over the microphone, but Joe Ely heard the call.

The Ely family moved to Lubbock when Joe was 11.

I drove out there a few years ago to meet with Joe.

He was giving a concert that night at the Cactus Theater, and I asked him to show me where the music came from.

He took me to Walmart.

[ Laughter ] We walked past the shoes and the lingerie and the ladies apparel to the baby department.

And Joe stood there in front of the strollers and the diapers and said, "Here, right here, was Buddy Holly's house."

[ Audience "Awws" ] In that same house, where Buddy Holly once lived, Joe took his first guitar lessons.

There ought to be a historical monument.

"Out here, you kind of have to make your own entertainment," Joe told the audience that night at the Cactus.

My parents had friends who owned a dry-cleaning store.

We'd go out to the lake for a picnic after church, and then we'd go back in the back door of the dry-cleaner store, and they would let us kids try on other people's clothes.

[ Laughter ] There was no greater thrill.

[ Laughter ] "I wish I had a song about that," he said.

[ Laughter ] Life in Lubbock was as flat and featureless as the landscape, as Joe's friend Terry Allen observed.

You could look so far over the horizon that eventually you see the back of your head.

[ Laughter ] There wasn't a whole lot in Lubbock for a rambunctious teenager to do.

So Joe got in trouble.

It started with riding his motorcycle down the hallway of Monterey High School on the first day of his freshman year.

But he didn't succeed in getting expelled until he sang that licentious song, "Cherry Pie," at a school assembly.

[ Laughter ] He began hanging out in clubs, looking for clues.

There's a roadhouse about 15 miles out of town on Highway 84 called the Cotton Club.

[ Scattered cheers ] Yeah, it's a falling-down clapboard shack that has gone through many owners, including Joe, at one point.

And during its heyday, it was the import-- most important music venue between Dallas and L.A. Johnny Cash played there, as did Fats Domino, Tex Ritter, even Benny Goodman.

But Friday was always reserved for Bob Wills, from Turkey, Texas.

The kindly daughter of the owner let aspiring young Texas musicians slip in the back door, including Roy Orbison from Wink, Waylon Jennings from Littlefield, and Buddy Holly.

They all got their musical education at the Cotton Club.

According to legend, the night Elvis played the Cotton Club, he made a serious error in judgment when he autographed the wrong pair of panties.

[ Laughter ] Some cowboy stuck a rag in his gas tank and set his Cadillac afire.

[ Laughter ] Another historical monument, perhaps?

[ Laughter ] One day, Joe picked up a hitchhiker whose name was Townes Van Zandt.

[ Audience "Oohs," cheers ] Townes had just recorded his first album, and he had a bunch of vinyls in his backpack, and he gave Joe one of them, and Joe took that album home and wore it out.

That was a clue.

Joe moved to Austin for a while and alternated shows with Stevie Ray Vaughan at a club called One Night.

They made about $15 in tips.

And so, looking for steadier work, Joe joined the circus as a llama herder.

[ Laughter ] He was also the caretaker of the world's smallest horse.

[ Laughter ] His friend and future bandmate, Jesse "Guitar" Taylor, invited him to join his roofing crew.

That lasted for about as long as it took Joe to take the roof off the wrong house.

[ Laughter ] "We only missed it by one," he said.

[ Laughter ] In 1968, he spent a week in the Lubbock jail.

That was another clue.

Behind bars, Joe finally began to write songs.

He and his Lubbock pals, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore, began singing together.

Butch came out of the folk tradition, and Jimmie Dale was a country guy, and Joe is a straight-out rocker.

But they melded together into a sound as honest and fundamental as the plains that gave birth to them.

They called themselves the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River Boys.

[ Laughter ] Catchy, right?

Yeah.

[ Laughter ] That early incarnation of the group that, on second thought, became the Flatlanders, recorded 17 songs on an eight-track tape.

It would become a cult classic, selling hundreds of thousands of copies.

But in the longstanding music-business tradition, the artists never got a dime in royalties.

Joe drove me around town, showing me the vacant lot where his dad's shop, the Disabled Veterans Thrift Store, once stood.

He pointed across the street to where -- to the warehouses where the Mexican dance halls had been.

The sounds of accordions and bajo sextons and horn sections were always in the air.

Those melodies would find their way into Los Super Seven, another fabulous group that Joe helped define.

He began playing gigs in a restaurant owned by C.B.

Stubblefield, called Stubbs.

A few years later, Joe would lure Stubbs to Austin.

The restaurant that occupies the same spot that the One Night club used to stand, Joe and his powerhouse wife, Sharon, used to cook up -- cook up Stubbs' famous barbecue sauce in their own kitchen.

In Lubbock, we ended the tour at the graveyard.

We had to ask the groundskeeper for help in locating Buddy's grave.

It's a simple stone with his dates, the 22 years between his birth and death, and his name spelled H-O-L-L-E-Y, as his family does.

The stone is covered with guitar picks left by musical pilgrims from all over the world.

Joe once brought The Clash here, and they spent the night in the gravesite, drinking beer and paying homage to the legend.

As Joe and I stood there, he looked out at the unbroken horizon, and he said, "I think all the emptiness made me want to fill it up."

And that's what Joe's music does.

It fills us up.

The driving beat of a Joe Ely anthem tells us right away where he's coming from.

He's a honky-tonk poet, an outlaw country minstrel, a corrido balladeer, a rocker with a broken heart, and all these traditions he experienced, captured, and transformed into his own distinctive style.

The lonesome boxcars rattle, the long snake moans, the fingernails click, all just to get to you.

The traditions that shaped Joe have been shaped by him in turn.

He absorbed the legends and became the legend.

And because of his gifts to our culture, the emptiness is filled with understanding, with meaning, and connection.

And how many young Texans have heard Joe's music and played them and joined the parade of song that is forever spilling forth from our state?

That's why we honor Joe Ely tonight into the "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame.

And Joe... [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] -After a speech from Larry like that -- I've been 'round the world a few times, but that speech literally drove me back around -- backwards around this planet.

And I'm really happy to be here and to see all my friends and to see the greatest musicians in Austin and the world.

[ Cheers and applause ] And thank you for all being here.

We're going to get the music going again.

Thank you.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Please welcome "ACL" Hall of Famer from the Class of 2018, Marcia Ball.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Back in 1972, I was a Firedog, in a band with a couple of guys from West Texas, Bobby Earl Smith and John Reed, and they turned me on to the great music coming out of Lubbock.

The Hancox, Terry Allen, and especially a band called The Flatlanders.

[ Cheers and applause ] I fell completely in love, and was a little bit eaten up with jealousy, over the songs they played, the amazing harmonies, their -- their intensity, everything about those guys, and especially the saw.

[ Laughs ] You have to listen to their music to get that.

So, a few years later, Joe went off and made a solo record, and he totally reinvented himself into a rock star.

It was an amazing transformation, and it lasts until this day.

His voice and, again, the songs and the great band seemed to explode off the grooves of, yes, the record.

And among those songs is one he wrote just for me.

[ Audience "Awws" ] Whether he knew it or not.

[ Laughter ] And so tonight, I'm going to do that song, and I want to do it for all of you.

And thank you.

And I want to do it especially for Joe, because ever since I first heard it, I keep my fingernails long.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ "Fingernails" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back from Texarkana ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back from Alabama ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Well, I used to chew 'em off ♪ ♪ I was nervous over you ♪ ♪ I missed that clickin', tickin' sound ♪ ♪ Ain't got anything else to do ♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back from Texarkana ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Well, I used to chew 'em off ♪ ♪ I was nervous over you ♪ ♪ I missed that clickin', tickin' sound ♪ ♪ Ain't got anything else to do ♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back from Alabama ♪ ♪ Ooh, hoo ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I keep my fingernails long ♪ ♪ So they click when I play the piano ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back from Alabama ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back from Louisiana ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I'm gonna keep 'em that way ♪ ♪ Till the swallows come back ♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] -Please welcome country-music singer-songwriter and "ACL" veteran Rodney Crowell.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ "Cool Rockin' Loretta" plays ] ♪♪ -1, 2, 3.

♪♪ -♪ Hey, operator ♪ ♪ Cancel the phone call ♪ ♪ I hear somebody knockin' at the door ♪ ♪ Lookie here, it's Loretta ♪ ♪ She never looked better ♪ ♪ Her arms are full of groceries from the store ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Racin' is my trade ♪ ♪ She works as a housemaid ♪ ♪ On weekends, don't you know, it's paradise ♪ ♪ Even though we got no dough ♪ ♪ It don't bother Loretta, though ♪ ♪ She turns them red-hot mamas into ice ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I want an antenna ♪ ♪ Baby, she wants a clothesline ♪ ♪ Then we'll be livin' like the rich folks do ♪ ♪ I'll pick up Chicago ♪ ♪ On my transistor radio ♪ ♪ Loretta, she can lay in bed till noon ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ The band told me this is where I have to testify.

[ Laughter ] Well, it was Guy Clark who put me onto Joe.

He said, "Hey, man, there's this guy from up in the Panhandle who run away to join the circus and write songs about Indian cowboys.

And he can rock it all night long.

So the time has come for a man to be sworn in to the "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame.

Not a minute too soon.

Not a minute too late.

Right on time.

'Cause Joe Ely is always right on time.

[ Cheers and applause ] He brought us Loretta.

She brings home the bacon.

She can't be taken.

Ain't no fakin'.

Knows what's shakin'.

That's Loretta.

Just like Joe brought her to life for you tonight.

♪♪ -1, 2, 3, 4!

-♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Ain't she fine ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ -♪ My, my, my ♪ -♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ My, my, my ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Loretta ♪ ♪ Cool rockin' Joe Ely ♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] -Welcome back the newest member of the "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame, Joe Ely.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ "All Just to Get to You" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ I have stumbled on the plains ♪ ♪ Staggered in the wind ♪ ♪ Stood at a crossroad or two ♪ ♪ Cried to a river ♪ ♪ Swept to the sea ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I have jumped a yellow cab ♪ ♪ Hopped a rusty freight ♪ ♪ Sang till my lips turned blue ♪ ♪ Flown a silver bird ♪ ♪ On the tops of the clouds ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I ran too hard ♪ ♪ I played too rough ♪ ♪ I gave my love ♪ ♪ Not near enough ♪ ♪ I bled too red ♪ ♪ I cried too blue ♪ ♪ I beat my fist ♪ ♪ Against the moon ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I have run from St. Paul ♪ ♪ To Wichita Falls ♪ ♪ Call'd you from sunny Baton Rouge ♪ ♪ I hocked everything ♪ ♪ From my watch to my ring ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I ran too hard ♪ ♪ I played too rough ♪ ♪ I gave my love ♪ ♪ Not near enough ♪ ♪ I bled too red ♪ ♪ I cried too blue ♪ ♪ I beat my fist ♪ ♪ Against the moon ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ From the California shore ♪ ♪ Where the mighty ocean roars ♪ ♪ To the land of the Hopi and the Sioux ♪ ♪ I walked the desert sand ♪ ♪ Across the Rio Grande ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I have stumbled on the plains ♪ ♪ Staggered in the wind ♪ ♪ Stood at a crossroad or two ♪ ♪ Cried to a river ♪ ♪ Swept to the sea ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪ I ran too hard ♪ ♪ I played too rough ♪ ♪ I gave my love ♪ ♪ Not near enough ♪ ♪ I bled too red ♪ ♪ I cried too blue ♪ ♪ I beat my fist ♪ ♪ Against the moon ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] What a band, what a band!

Thank you.

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ "Me and Billy the Kid" plays ] -Now here's Joe Ely from his "Austin City Limits" appearance in 1999.

-♪ Well, me and Billy the Kid never got along ♪ ♪ I didn't like the way he cocked his hat ♪ ♪ And he wore his gun all wrong ♪ ♪ But we had the same girlfriend ♪ ♪ And he never forgot it ♪ ♪ She had a cute little Chihuahua ♪ ♪ Till one day he up and shot it ♪ ♪ He rode the hard country ♪ ♪ Down the New Mexico line ♪ ♪ He had a silver pocket watch that he never did wind ♪ ♪ He crippled a piano player ♪ ♪ For playing his favorite song ♪ ♪ No, me and Billy the Kid, we never got along ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Yeah, me and Billy the Kid never got along ♪ ♪ I didn't like the way he buckled his belt ♪ ♪ And he wore his gun all wrong ♪ ♪ He was bad to the bone ♪ ♪ All hopped up on speed ♪ ♪ I would've left him alone ♪ ♪ If it wasn't for that señorita ♪ ♪ He gave her silver ♪ ♪ And he paid her hotel bill ♪ ♪ But it was me she loved ♪ ♪ She said she always will ♪ ♪ I'd always go and see her ♪ ♪ When Billy was gone ♪ ♪ Yeah, me and Billy the Kid, we never got along ♪ ♪♪ -From his 1984 "ACL" performance.

-♪ Please understand me, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I was high flyin' down the riverside drive ♪ ♪ Rockin' to the radio, man alive ♪ ♪ Stopped into a joint, I bought a round of booze ♪ ♪ Hot dog, I got a buzz in my shoe ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Please understand me, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Writin' you a letter, it's late in the night ♪ ♪ Sittin' in a café, honey, eatin' a bite ♪ ♪ Tellin' you about where all I've been ♪ ♪ Hot dog, I'm gone again ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Please understand me, everything's all right ♪ ♪ Musta notta gotta lotta sleep last night ♪ ♪♪ ♪ Now there's two kind of people in this big 'ol town ♪ ♪ Early to rise and the late to go down ♪ ♪ Guess I better find a better way to stop the clock ♪ ♪ Hot dog, I like it a lot ♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -Please welcome Joe Ely and his compadres Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore -- The Flatlanders.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Well, Joe, I got to tell you, this is a far cry from the, uh, fire escape at the venue on the Strand in London.

You remember that night?

-Oh, I got thrown out of my own show.

-Yeah.

[ Laughter ] -Yeah, but you got me thrown out, too.

[ Laughter ] Yeah, but it was a...

But, you know, Terry Allen said "That's what friends are for.

It's to get you into trouble that you were too chicken to get into yourself."

[ Laughter ] Thanks, Terry.

Yeah.

[ "I Had My Hopes Up High" plays ] ♪♪ -♪ Well, I left my home out on the great High Plains ♪ ♪ Headed for some new terrain ♪ ♪ Standin' on the highway with my coffee cup ♪ ♪ Wonderin' who was gonna pick me up ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ -♪ Well, the first ride I got was in a dynamite truck ♪ ♪ The driver kept a' tellin' me his bad luck ♪ ♪ As we swerved around the curve ♪ ♪ I began to shout ♪ ♪ I said, "Hey, mister, won't you let me out?"

♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ On Jimmie.

-♪ Well, the next ride I got was with a man in trouble ♪ ♪ The beard on his face was all in a stubble ♪ ♪ Goin' down the highway doin' ninety-nine ♪ ♪ I said, "Hey, mister, you're out of your mind" ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ Well, the next ride I got was with a preacher man ♪ ♪ He told me that the wicked would be buried in sand ♪ ♪ I don't know why I did it, but I lost control ♪ ♪ I said, "Hey, papa, won't you save my soul?"

♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ -♪ And I finally got a ride on a carnival train ♪ ♪ Nearly blew away in a hurricane ♪ ♪ Thinkin' 'bout the preacher down in New Orleans ♪ ♪ Sittin' on the Delta siftin' dreams ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ Now, I left my home out on the great High Plains ♪ ♪ Searchin' for some new terrain ♪ ♪ Standin' on the highway with my coffee cup ♪ ♪ And wonderin' who was gonna pick me up ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ ♪ I never thought that I ♪ ♪ Would ever wonder why I ever said goodbye ♪ ♪ I had my hopes up high ♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] Alright.

That was a song written by Joe Ely.

[ Laughter, cheers, applause ] And so is this next one.

I'm Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

This is Butch Hancock.

[ Cheers and applause ] Joe isn't just, like, a knocked-out rocker.

He's also got this amazingly beautiful sweet side.

-And this is one of the most beautiful West Texas songs you'll ever hear.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Should I leave the room?

[ Laughter ] -1, 2, 3, 4.

[ "Because of the Wind" plays ] ♪♪ -♪ Do you know why the trees bend ♪ ♪ At the west Texas border?

♪ ♪ Do you know why they bend ♪ ♪ Sway and twine?

♪ ♪ The trees bend because of the wind ♪ ♪ Across that lonesome border ♪ ♪ The trees bend because of the wind ♪ ♪ Almost all the time ♪ ♪♪ -♪ Have you seen my Caroline ♪ ♪ Up in Amarillo?

♪ ♪ Have you seen my Caroline ♪ ♪ The one that I call mine?

♪ ♪ And if you see my Caroline ♪ ♪ With her hair of yellow ♪ ♪ If you see my Caroline ♪ ♪ Tell her I'm doin' fine ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ She is to me like the breeze ♪ ♪ That blows from Corpus Christi ♪ ♪ She is to me like the breeze ♪ ♪ That blows up from the sea ♪ ♪ And if she is like the breeze ♪ ♪ That blows from Corpus Christi ♪ ♪ Then I must be like the trees ♪ ♪ 'Cause Caroline blows through me ♪ ♪♪ -♪ Do you know why the trees bend ♪ ♪ At the west Texas border?

♪ ♪ Do you know why they bend ♪ ♪ And sway and twine?

♪ ♪ The trees bend because of the wind ♪ ♪ Along that lonesome border ♪ ♪ The trees bend because of the wind ♪ ♪ Almost all the time ♪ ♪♪ ♪ The trees bend because of the wind ♪ ♪ Almost all the time ♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] -All right.

Well... Well, we're going to do one more here, and with some -- we're going to get a couple more friends up with us, but I do want to tell a little bit about, uh... this -- what Joe and Butch and I have been into all this time.

You know, one thing is that, uh... music... Well, you know, food is important, and water is important, and air is important, and... music is right in there with them.

[ Cheers and applause ] You know?

And the -- the only -- the only thing greater than any of those is love.

[ Cheers and applause ] There's nobody, in my opinion, that... loves the music and loves his audience more than Joe Ely.

[ Cheers and applause ] And part of our heritage as The Flatlanders here, part of what -- we brought different music to each other and then all absorbed it and I guess made something new out of it.

But one thing we had in common already, all of us had, was Woody Guthrie in our bones.

[ Applause ] And so Joe wanted us to do a Woody Guthrie song here.

Marcia Ball.

Rodney Crowell.

[ Cheers and applause ] And everybody should join in.

It's pretty easy to learn.

It's -- It's already there when you start.

-1, 2, 3.

[ "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad" plays ] ♪♪ -♪ I'm blowin' down this old dusty road ♪ ♪ I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road ♪ ♪ I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road, Lord ♪ ♪ An' I ain't a-gonna be treated this a-way ♪ -♪ Well, I'm a-goin' where the water taste like wine ♪ ♪ Well, I'm goin' where the water taste like wine ♪ ♪ I'm goin' where the water taste like wine, O Lord ♪ ♪ An' I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ -♪ I'm goin' where the dust storms never blow ♪ ♪ I'm goin' where them dust storms never blow ♪ ♪ I'm goin' where them dust storms never blow, Lord, Lord ♪ ♪ An' I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ ♪ Well, they say that I'm a dust bowl refugee ♪ ♪ They say that I'm a dust bowl refugee ♪ ♪ Well, they say that I'm a dust bowl refugee, Lord, Lord ♪ ♪ But I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -♪ Well, my children need three square meals a day ♪ ♪ Yes, my children need three square meals a day ♪ ♪ My children need three square meals a day, Lord, Lord ♪ ♪ An' I ain't a-gonna be treated this way ♪ Oh, yeah.

-♪ I'm blowin' down this old dusty road ♪ ♪ I'm a-blowin' down this old dusty road ♪ ♪ I'm blowin' down this old dusty road, Lord, Lord ♪ ♪ An' I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ ♪ I'm blowin' down this old dusty road ♪ ♪ I'm blowin' down this old dusty road ♪ ♪ I'm blowin' down this old dusty road, Lord, Lord ♪ ♪ An' I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ ♪ An' I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ ♪ An' I ain't gonna be treated this way ♪ ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you, everybody!

-Thank you, Austin!

Thank you, "Austin City Limits."

-Thank you, Joe Ely.

-Ooh, yes, ma'am.

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] [ Cheers and applause continues ] -♪ I ran too hard ♪ ♪ I played too rough ♪ ♪ I gave my love ♪ ♪ Not near enough ♪ ♪ I bled too red ♪ ♪ I cried too blue ♪ ♪ I beat my fist ♪ ♪ Against the moon ♪ ♪ All just to get to you ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪