The country singer-songwriter Joe Ely has announced a new album, Driven to Drive, which arrives on August 2. Leading the LP is a new song featuring Bruce Springsteen, “Odds of the Blues.” Listen to the track below.

Ely and Springsteen have performed together sporadically since the early 1990s. In 1995, Ely recruited Springsteen to sing on two Letter to Laredo tracks, “All Just to Get to You” and “I’m a Thousand Miles From Home.”

Discussing the new song in a press release, Ely said:

I got the idea for the song from hanging out at an all-night after-hours joint on the edge of east Lubbock called TV’s…. There was always a dice game in the back room; the pool table had a bad lean; and the jukebox mainly played old blues songs. I wrote the song later when I put my studio together in Austin. I asked Bruce recently if he would like to sing with me on this song, and he said he’d love to. We’ve been long lost friends for a long time. One of my memories of us singing together was in Dublin, Ireland, when we both got on stage with Jerry Lee Lewis and Shane MacGowan and sang “Great Balls of Fire.”

Ely self-produced Driven to Drive. The new release follows Ely’s 2022 collection Flatland Lullaby and the 2020 album Love in the Midst of Mayhem. Last year, the musician reissued his first three studio albums: 1977’s Joe Ely, 1978’s Honky Tonk Masquerade, and 1979’s Down on the Drag.

Driven to Drive:

01 Drivin’ Man
02 Odds of the Blues [ft. Bruce Springsteen]
03 For Your Love
04 Watchin’ Them Semis Roll
05 Didn’t We Robbie
06 Nashville Is a Catfish
07 Ride Motorcycle
08 San Antonio Brawl
09 Slave to the Western Wind
10 Gulf Coast Blues
11 Driven to Drive
12 Jackhammer Rock