Bruce Springsteen is one of the best, and he’s also collaborated with the best of them. From Lou Reed to Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, the Boss knows how to surround himself with top-notch talent. His most recent collaboration sees him going country. Singer-songwriter Joe Ely recently revealed that his latest album will drop this summer. And his longtime friend Springsteen is joining him on one track.
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Joe Ely Announces New Album, Bruce Springsteen Collab
Ely’s self-produced album, Driven to Drive, drops Aug. 2. It’s the Texan’s first album since his 2022 children’s collection Flatland Lullaby, which was preceded by the 2020 record Love in the Midst of Mayhem.
Springsteen guest stars on the track “Odds of the Blues.” Ely was inspired to write the song after spending time at “an all-night after-hours joint on the edge of east Lubbock.”
The “West Texas Waltz” singer painted a vivid picture of the venue. Someone was always playing dice in the back room. The pool table constantly threatened to topple over. And the jukebox “mainly played old blues songs.”
“I wrote the song later when I put my studio together in Austin,” Ely said in a news release. “I asked Bruce recently if he would like to sing with me on this song, and he said he’d love to.”
A Look At the Friendship Between Two Songwriters
The Chicago Tribune drew parallels between Springsteen and Ely back in 2001. Both artists favor “brawny, epic song-stories about good-hearted crooks, blue-collar heroes and enduring lovers.” The main difference between the two, wrote the Tribune, “comes down to accent.” Indeed, the “Born in the USA” singer hails from New Jersey, while Ely grew up in Lubbock, Texas.
The pair struck up a friendship in 1993, when their touring paths crossed in the Emerald Isle. “One of my memories of us singing together was in Dublin, Ireland, when we both got on stage with Jerry Lee Lewis and Shane MacGowan and sang “Great Balls of Fire,” Ely said in the news release.
Two years later, Springsteen joined Ely for two tracks featured on his 1995 album Letter to Laredo: “All Just to Get to You” and “I’m a Thousand Miles From Home.”
Featured image by Amy Sussman/Getty Images
