IT WAS ONLY MID-MARCH when Joe Ely sat in the recording studio at his home south of Austin, but 1998 was already shaping up to be a big year for the Lubbock-bred rocker. The night before, downtown Austin’s Wild About Music gallery had opened “Another Sanity,” a show of Ely’s art featuring everything from his pencil sketches of life on the road and paintings on canvas to pieces done with cameras or computer. He was busy working on music for a forthcoming film, Tornado Jam, whose script was co-written by his wife, Sharon, and their fellow Lubbock expatriate Jo Carol Pierce. In a couple of weeks he and his band would leave for nearly a month of touring in Europe, followed by a few months…
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