(Photo : Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Joe Ely has announced his new album, 'Driven to Drive.' It is set to release on Aug. 2 via Rack' Em Records / Thirty Tigers.
'Driven to Drive' is Ely's first road album, with 23 albums and many million miles under the West Texas native's belt. The album is a collection of songs inspired by travels from different periods of his distinguished career spanning five decades.
"I've been traveling all my life in search of whatever I find," Ely said. "Revisiting some of my studio files, I noticed there were a lot of songs I had written on the road about traveling. I had recorded them in my studio every time I got off the road. I compiled a selection of songs like that from different eras. That's Driven to Drive."
Along with the announcement, he also released the official music video for the album's first single, 'Odds of the Blues' with Bruce Springsteen.
The video was directed by Matthew Eskey, who used home footage that Ely, his wife Sharon, and their families had taken over the years.
"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," Ely said about the origins of 'Odds of the Blues.'
He added he wrote the song later when he put his studio together in Austin. He asked Springsteen if he would like to sing with him, and he gladly accepted the offer.
The country singer-songwriter self-produced 'Driven to Drive.' The new album follows Ely's 2020 album 'Love in the Midst of Mayhem.'
Last year, Ely reissued his first three studio albums: 'Down on the Drag' (1979), 'Honky Tonk Masquerade' (1978), and 'Joe Ely' (1977).
