Joe Ely,
Bonfire of Roadmaps

Publisher: UT Press
Year: 2007

(4 out of 5)

For more than 35 years, Joe Ely has crossed the globe with band in tow. Throughout these travels, he has kept a series of journals written in notebooks, on scrap paper, on napkins — whatever surface he could find. Some writings eventually turned into songs. Others simply catalog life on the road.

In Bonfire of Roadmaps, new this spring from UT Press, Ely shares a selection of his journals spanning from the train-jumping days of 1972 to a Flatlanders tour in 2002.

Written mostly in free verse yet undergirded by a strong rhythmic sense, the entries read like beat poetry. Take, for example, his description of a sudden PA outage when he and bandmates enter a cathedral in England:

The priest put the blame on the microphone switch
This was a very kind thing to do
But our presence, I felt, was the source of it all
When this loud band entered the sanctimonious silence

For the self-described seeker, journaling offers a chance to re-examine daily life and find meaning in his "intangible existence." Ely also finds enlightenment in the numbing routine of travel, late-night trips to pool halls, free time wandering unknown streets, and of course the all-too-brief interludes with family.

It's not always a glamorous life. In a 1996 sequence, one night he's on national TV and staying as a guest of the network at an upscale hotel, and the next night he's sleeping on the ground in an Ohio cornfield. But getting on stage makes the heartaches and breakdowns, the stresses and fatigue fade away:

[W]e know that we have given our hearts
And the crowd knows as well
These are the moments we live for,
All else is just Highway and Howdy-do

Though a slim 208 pages, this isn't a work you're likely to consume in a single sitting. The free-form verse can be challenging. There's no real narrative. The entries are not arranged chronologically. Ely's style and voice change with the times.

So take your time, revel in the rich imagery, study the 30-plus line drawings, and enjoy. The deeply reflective Bonfire of Roadmaps offers a fascinating glimpse into the life and mind of one of Americana's most poetic voices.

Buy: Amazon

April 4, 2007