Track Listing
1. All Just to Get to You
2. Gallo del Cielo
3. Run Preciosa
4. Saint Valentine
5. Ranches and Rivers
6. Letter to Laredo
7. I Saw It in You
8. She Finally Spoke Spanish to Me
9. I Ain't Been Here Long
10. That Ain't Enough
11. I'm a Thousand Miles from Home
| Details | | Playing Time: | 54 min. | | Contributing Artists: | Bruce Springsteen, El Gato, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Ponty Bone | | Producer: | Joe Ely | | Distributor: | Universal Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Personnel: Joe Ely (vocals, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Bruce Springsteen (vocals); Lloyd Maines (dobro, slide guitar, steel guitar); David Grissom (acoustic & electric guitars); Teye (Spanish guitar); Ponty Bone (accordion); Glenn Fukunaga (bass); Davis McLarty (drums); Chris Searles (percussion); Raul Malo, Jimmie Dale Gillmore, El Gato (background vocals).
Engineers: Little Johnny Fader, James Tuttle, Jim Wilson.
Recorded at Spur Studios, Austin, Texas. Includes liner notes by Joe Nick Patoski.
Personnel: Joe Ely (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica); Bruce Springsteen (vocals); David Grissom (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Lloyd Maines (slide guitar, steel guitar, dobro); Teye (flamenco guitar); Ponty Bone (accordion); Davis McLarty (drums); Chris Searles (percussion).
Audio Mixer: David Leonard.
Liner Note Author: Joe Nick Patoski.
Recording information: Spur Studios, Austin, TX.
Photographer: Michael Wilson .
LETTER TO LAREDO was something of a departure for Joe Ely, especially after the aggressive, roots-rock energy of his late-1980s work. Yet LETTER is a stand-out in his discography. Reflective and lovely, the album is buoyed by Ely's high lonesome voice, steel guitar, accordion, and flamenco guitarist Teye's lilting fretwork. Like many of Ely's albums, LETTER is filled with story-songs, but this is a particularly evocative collection, painting a vivid, dusty picture of the Southwest with its ranches, cantinas, and startling landscapes, and its hybrids of cowboy and Mexican life.
As such, the songs on LETTER are very much of a piece, and play almost like a collection of short stories. While the flamenco guitar casts a vague gypsy spell over the proceedings, the musical backdrop is colored with regionally specific allusions to ranchera, mariachi, and hard country, over which Ely unfurls captivating tales of outlaws and outsiders. Former bandmate Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Bruce Springsteen are among the guest artists contributing to this distinctive, absorbing release.
Editorial Reviews
3 Stars - Good - ...Ely's idiosyncratic twang and swagger is lifted up by his passion for flamenco guitars...
Q (02/01/1996)
...LETTER TO LAREDO takes [Ely] down an un-rocky road to his deep southern Spanish folk roots...
Melody Maker (01/20/1996)
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