City Weekly · Opinion
The music of the late Joe Ely will make a honky rockin blues convert out of anyone.
Private Eye
On April 29, 1981, the great local band CowJazz performed at the Cowboy Bar on Main Street in Park City. For those who don’t recall that era, CowJazz was legendary, perhaps as talented a group to ever come out of Utah. No doubt the Cowboy Bar was full that night with CowJazz fans.
But I do surmise that most of them left with their minds blown—not by CowJazz, but by Utah newcomer Joe Ely, the headliner that evening. In early 1981, I had moved to Chicago, where I somehow got my first writing jobs as a freelancer, then as the associate editor for the country music magazine, CountryStyle .
Those…
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