‘I guess I’ve got a demon inside me.’ : Joe Ely’s Back Like West Texas Wind

To serious fans of rock and country music, Joe Ely has become something of a legend for his driven, live performances. His country-rock hybrid has the urgency of rock and the potent imagery of country, a powerful combination that audiences will have a chance to witness when Ely returns to the Southland for a series of shows beginning tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

What makes his approach to music so intense?

“I guess I’ve got a demon inside me,” Ely says, only half-joking.

“You see,” Ely, 40, said in his slow west Texas drawl during an interview at his Los Angeles hotel, “I was always fascinated with this one street in Amarillo--old Route 66. It had honky-tonks from one end to the other. And there was this old alleyway where you could go and hear a different band in just about every doorway. There was just something about it that made me wonder what was going on.

“Then the little girl next door would tell me what had happened when her parents would go to the honky-tonks. She’d say, ‘Yeah, they had a fight and there was cold blood on the dance floor.’ I remember,” he says as he wraps his arms around himself and shakes, “I’d shiver just like this.”

Though he’s years from his Lone Star State childhood, those memories continue to shape and color Ely’s life and music, from the Western imagery in his songs to the Mexican flavor often found in his melodies.

“My Dad owned a used-clothing store in downtown Lubbock. He taught me Spanish when I was 10 years old, so he could put me on the cash register. There I was bargaining and selling to all the migrant workers who were chopping the cotton, bargaining a pair of shoes from 30 cents to 20 cents. I just got to know the culture like that,” he said.

“Growing up in Texas, it (the Mexican/cowboy influence) is completely integrated into your life style because it’s in the food you eat, the music, the whole spirit of the honky-tonks, all the beer drinking and raising hell, that sort of stuff.”

All those experiences translated into three seminal country albums, “Joe Ely,” “Honky Tonk Masquerade” and “Down on the Drag” in 1977, ’78 and ‘79, respectively. In 1981, Ely widened the perimeters to include more rock muscle on “Musta Notta Gotta Lotta,” an album that pleased a lot of critics but that also alienated some of his core country audience.

After two solid years on the road opening for such rock acts as the Clash and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ely found himself worn ragged. His band had self-destructed. It was time to retrench.

Then in 1984, Ely released “Hi-Res,” a record that unexpectedly was built around synthesizers instead of guitars. Although the album spawned the feisty “Cool Rockin’ Loretta,” still a cornerstone of his live shows, its high-tech trappings left fans more confused than ever about his direction.

From there, Ely, a man who once ran off and joined the circus, seemed to vanish without a trace. Stymied by record company red tape, he turned in an album to MCA that was never released. But despite his low public profile for nearly three years, Ely was far from inactive.

Music, he said, “is an ongoing process for me because I have these songs kind of caught in my head. They’re almost like wheels or windmills, and I have to get them out or they’ll drive me crazy.

“So, every time I start writing an album, I try to put myself into a different place,” he said.

Rather than spend time and energy fretting about the lost MCA album--even though it included some of his best songs--he turned around and went to work on a new record, 1987’s “Lord of the Highway.” That album landed him a deal with Hightone Records, the small Bay Area-based independent label that broke the Robert Cray Band’s successful “Strong Persuader” album the previous year.

“This last album was written mostly on the road with an acoustic guitar and a ballpoint pen. I did a whole little tour around it,” he said.

“Lord of the Highway” was more than just Ely’s way of breaking the silence. It was also his way of finally capturing on vinyl some of the sparks he and his band make live.

“Basically, I was really disappointed by the whole situation with MCA. So this record was more a case of, ‘Well, boys, let’s roll up our sleeves and record an album.’

“We just started putting it together piece by piece as there was no record company money paying for it. I’d go down and buy a reel of tape (and) the band would come in and do their time. We’d record until we ran out of tape. Then I’d go out, do a tour, come back and buy some more tape.

“It’s not the way most records are made, with all the stopwatch starts and studio time. But I think it may be how we caught the spirit of a band saying, ‘Let’s just do it! Let’s play!’ ”

Ely lets out a warm laugh that echoes the good spirits that went into making “Lord of the Highway.” From his demeanor, it’s hard to tell that he’s been to the wall and back, drifted from job to job when his guitar couldn’t make ends meet, hustled pool on more than one occasion to pay the bills, yet never once thought about giving up the music.

After once being hailed as pop music’s next big thing, Ely watched his career crumble. Though there have been several times when the deck has been stacked against him, Ely has overcome the setbacks.

Leaning back in his chair, Ely explained: “Growing up in west Texas, there was always this same wind that blew about 30 miles per hour, no matter what. Constantly--winter, spring, summer, fall--there was always this wind blowing through. It makes your back door beat against itself; it makes the trees scratch your windows.

“I guess there’s something in that wind that still just kinda pushes me.”

Joe Ely will play at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano, tonight at 8. Tickets: $13.50. Information: (714) 496-8927.