Honky Tonk Masquerade Explained

Honky Tonk Masquerade
Type:studio
Artist:Joe Ely
Cover:Ely-Honky_Tonk_Masquerade.jpg
Released:February 1978
Recorded:October 17–26, 1977
Studio:Youngun's Sound Studios, Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Genre:Country rock
Length:33:57
Label:MCA
Producer:Chip Young
Prev Title:Joe Ely
Prev Year:1977
Next Title:Down on the Drag
Next Year:1979

Honky Tonk Masquerade is the second album by country singer-songwriter Joe Ely, released in 1978.

Critical acclaim

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Ely's pure, unadorned vocals and wry, gently philosophical songs revive the Hank Williams-Lefty Frizzell honky-tonk tradition in country music without showing any traces of nostalgia or self-consciousness."[1]

Honky Tonk Masquerade has been highly regarded by critics around the world. It was included in the 2005 book, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.[2] Writer Steve Pond places the album at number 40 on Rolling Stone's list of "50 Essential Albums of the 70s", calling it "the decade's most sure-footed country-rock collaboration".[3] Pond places the album in the same class as such 1970s "country landmarks" as Guy Clark's Old No. 1, Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger, and Terry Allen's Lubbock (On Everything). In addition, New Zealand critic Fred Muller places the album on his list of the top ten "best albums of the rock era".[4]

LP track listing

All songs by Joe Ely; except as indicated.

Side one

  1. "Cornbread Moon" – 3:29
  2. "Because of the Wind" – 4:02
  3. "Boxcars" (Butch Hancock) – 4:03
  4. "Jericho (Your Walls Must Come Tumbling Down)" (Butch Hancock) – 2:54
  5. "Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown" (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, John Reed) – 2:12

Side two

  1. "Honky Tonk Masquerade" – 3:46
  2. "I'll Be Your Fool" – 2:52
  3. "Fingernails" – 2:13
  4. "West Texas Waltz" (Butch Hancock) – 5:03
  5. "Honky Tonkin'" (Hank Williams) – 3:27

Personnel

Credits as listed in liner notes.[5]

Musicians

Production

Artwork

Releases

In 2000, a remastered edition of Ely's first two albums (Joe Ely and Honky Tonk Masquerade) were released together on a single disk. Dirty Linen reported that this disk was especially worth seeking out since it was (at least at the time), "the only place on two continents you can get Ely's debut". The reviewer described Ely's first two albums together: "Ely's self-titled effort and HTM are a bit leaner than most of his other honky-tonk rockers, with a bit more piano than electric guitar backing his lonesome warble – dry and forceful as the wind whistling through Waco."

year format record company catalog number
1978 LP MCA 2333
MCA 20378
CD MCA MCAD-10220
Cassette MCA MCAC-10220
1995 Cassette Universal Special Products 20378
2000 CD Beat Goes On (BGO) BGOCD502[7]

Notes and sources

References

Notes and References

  1. News: Hilburn . Robert . Texas' Joe Ely: Cookin' in Honky-Tonk Tradition . Los Angeles Times . 14 May 1978 . Calendar . 88.
  2. Robert Dimery (ed), 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Cassell Illustrated, 2005 (link to list)
  3. Steve Pond, "The Seventies Reconsidered: 50 Essential Albums of the Decade", Rolling Stone Seventies retrospective issue, 1990 (link)
  4. Fred Muller, "The Top Ten albums: The albums of the rock era", AudioEnz, New Zealand, January 2001 (link)
  5. Reporting of the liner notes for this article were from the MCA CD release, MCAD-10220
  6. "Jesse Taylor, guitarist: born Lubbock, Texas 1950; (three daughters); died Austin, Texas 7 March 2006.", [obituary], The Independent, March 11, 2006 (link)
  7. This is a remastered disk that combines Joe Ely and Honky Tonk Masquerade onto a single disk.

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