Call him what you want — a wandering minstrel, gypsy cowboy, visionary song poet or house rocker on fire — while everyone else romances the road, Joe Ely lives it. He really has ridden the rails (in a circus train, no less), thumbed his way across the country, hopped boats to exotic foreign lands and ridden horses across the prairie. His journey led Joe to roam the earth and preach the gospel of the roadhouse, extolling the virtues of the nowhere-else-but-Texas pressure cooker environment where hardcore country and the rawest kind of rock ‘n’ roll collide on the dance floor every Saturday night. Along the way, Joe gained the respect of his friends and peers, including such kindred spirits as Bruce Springsteen, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Raul Malo of the Mavericks. Joe’s music career has rightfully earned him status as Texas royalty. He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance in 2007 from the Americana Music Association. In 2016, he was inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters Hall of Fame and named a Texas State Musician, both fitting nods to Joe’s songs about the stuff that makes anyone’s journey something worth remembering.