Texas country music legend Joe Ely announced on Sept. 9 in a Facebook post that he has been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Both conditions significantly affect cognitive and physical functions and independent activity.
Austin, TX
Texas music legend Joe Ely reveals Lewy body dementia, Parkinson’s diagnoses
Joe Ely performs at the Paramount Theatre on Jan. 5, 2019 in Austin, Texas.
Ely and his wife, Sharon Ely, said that they are sharing the journey “not to dwell in hardship, but to bring understanding, awareness and hope through the healing power of music.”
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“Our story is about how music continues to lift us up,” Sharon Ely wrote in the post. “Revisiting Joe’s recordings and hearing them brought to life again has given him so much joy, and we want others to feel that same joy too.”
Joe Ely of the Flatlanders performs at the Frank Erwin Center during the Neighbors in Need Benefit Concert on Sept. 21, 2005.
From the Flatlanders to Ringling Bros.: A storied life
As a singer-songwriter, Ely’s contributions to Texas music have spanned decades, but beyond the music, he has led a storied life. He was born in Amarillo and moved to Lubbock at age 11. He rode a motorcycle down the hallways of Monterey High School on the first day of his freshman year. He later was expelled from the school for singing “Cherry Pie” at an assembly.
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He broke out on the Texas music scene as a founding member of the Flatlanders, a country-rock band formed in Lubbock in 1972. Despite being named a winner at the inaugural Kerrville Folk Festival’s New Folk Singer-Songwriter Competition, the group disbanded shortly after their first album faced a limited commercial release.
Ely then joined the Ringling Bros. circus in the summer of 1974 where he cared for the llamas and the world’s smallest horse. After being kicked unconscious by one of the show’s horses, Ely hitchhiked back to Lubbock with two broken ribs. He then had a short-lived career as a roofer, which ended after his crew removed the roof from the wrong house.
In the fall of 1974, Ely was asked to play the role of Buddy Holly in a script written by Holly’s drummer, Jerry Allison. He even went to Hollywood and rehearsed for two weeks with Gary Busey, who was cast in Allison’s role, but the project was later scrapped.
The Flatlanders, Joe Ely, left, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock perform during the “No Two Alike” concert series at the Cactus Cafe in Austin on Jan. 31, 1990.
The Joe Ely Band years
He eventually made a reputation for himself as one of Austin’s progressive country pioneers, but he started out playing the One Knite tavern after first moving to the city, alternating nights with Stevie Ray Vaughan in a venue that would eventually become Stubb’s Bar-B-Q.
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He went on to put together the Joe Ely Band in early 1975 and, by the recommendation of Jerry Jeff Walker, signed to MCA Records that same year. He put out his debut album “Joe Ely” in 1977 and followed it up with “Honky Tonk Masquerade” a year later, which landed him a feature story in Time magazine.
In the late 1970s, Ely and his band toured with the Clash. He even sang backing vocals on the Clash’s 1982 hit “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” The band opened for Linda Ronstadt, the Kinks, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones through the early 1980s.
That barely scratches the surface.
Scattered throughout the 1990s, he played onstage with Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, recorded with Los Super Seven and joined a supergroup named the Buzzin’ Cousins with John Mellencamp, John Prine and James McMurtry. He embarked on a trip to New York City with famed local artist Jim Franklin, but ended up joining the cast of “Stomp” after Franklin stranded him in the city. His stint in “Stomp” led him to Germany, where he recorded a piece of music for the Museum of Modern Art in Munich with composer Eberhard Schoener using the first Moog synthesizer in Europe.
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He made 11 appearances on the music television show “Austin City Limits,” appeared on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien’s late-night shows and wrote a novel. To add to all that, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wrote the liner notes for his 2014 release, “B4 84,” as it was one of the first albums ever digitally recorded using an Apple II computer.
Joe Ely and wife Sharon Ely heading back to their place in their Buick in May 1998.
Honoring Joe Ely’s legacy
In 2007, Ely was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Live Performance by the Americana Music Association. He was named the Texas State Musician for 2016 and inducted into the Texas Heritage Songwriters’ Association Hall of Fame that same year. In 2022, Joe Ely was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame alongside Sheryl Crow.
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Following the recent diagnoses, Ely and his wife shared that they are working on a book about his life and invited friends and fans to submit stories of his music career for possible inclusion. Submissions may be sent to rackemrecords.info@gmail.com.
AUSTIN, Texas — Self-driving cars have become a common sight on Austin streets, but a new Texas law is adding tougher requirements for the companies behind the wheelless vehicles.
Senate Bill 2807 imposes stricter rules on autonomous vehicle companies operating in the state, including state authorization, emergency response plans for law enforcement, and a public portal where residents can verify operators and file safety complaints.
The changes come as Austin continues to track incidents involving autonomous vehicles. The city’s autonomous vehicle dashboard shows 75 incidents in 2026, including a collision, eight near misses, and seven incidents of ignoring police direction.
Attorney Drew Gibbs, a partner at Slingshot Law, said one crash involved a Waymo vehicle.
“There was a T-bone collision. A pretty serious T-bone collision where a Waymo just crashed into the side of my client’s vehicle,” Gibbs said.
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One of the incidents of ignoring police direction happened during the mass shooting on West Sixth Street back in March, when three people died, and 15 others were injured.
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock said autonomous vehicles can struggle in unusual situations.
“It didn’t impede on anything in the moment, but it’s not necessarily uncommon where these vehicles don’t quite know how to deal with these one-off scenarios,” Bullock said.
The new law requires autonomous vehicle companies to be authorized by the state, to provide an emergency response plan for law enforcement, and to participate in a public-facing portal that allows the public to verify operators and submit safety complaints.
Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, welcomed the added oversight.
“I’m glad that the state is taking this a bit more seriously now,” she said. “It’s important not to just let others slip in without kind of meeting those basic minimums.”
Bullock said the emergency planning requirement may not make a major difference in fast-moving situations. Asked how impactful it is to have a fully laid out emergency response plan, Bullock said, “These plans are great, but it takes time to work through all of those versus the immediacy of having someone behind the wheel.”
The four autonomous vehicle companies operating in Austin — Waymo, Zoox, AV-Ride, and Tesla — are all state-authorized.
The Texas DMV said an autonomous vehicle company can lose its authorization to operate in Texas if the agency deems the vehicles are operating in a way that endangers public safety.
Waymo was contacted for comment, but had not responded.
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson said Tuesday she will leave the post next month.
What we know:
In a statement, Nelson said her resignation will be effective July 17 but did not provide a reason for the departure.
“It has been an honor to serve the people of Texas in this role,” Nelson said. “My time as Secretary came at an important moment for Texas, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish as an agency in under four years.”
Nelson has served in the role since 2023.
Among other things, the Secretary of State oversees elections and business filings in the state and serves as the chief diplomat of Texas.
View of Texas State Senator Jane Nelson, during the 80th Texas Legislature, on the floor of the Senate at the Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas, January 22, 2007. (John Anderson/The Austin Chronicle / Getty Images)
What they’re saying:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott described Nelson as extraordinary.
“I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership. She has represented our state with grace and honor across the globe, and Texas is better because of it,” Abbott said. “Cecilia and I wish her all the best in the next chapter of her distinguished career.”
Dig deeper:
According to the Secretary of State’s office, Nelson has presided over seven statewide elections during her tenure with a cumulative 27 million ballots cast and broke a record with more than 3 million active business filers.
Nelson also served three decades in the Texas Senate, where she remains the longest-serving Republican in state history.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Michael Dorman
Austin, Texas, is revving up to sell $2.35 billion of debt for a convention center and a wastewater treatment plant, while a legal battle continues over bonds to help finance a light rail system.
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The bond boom comes as the city council voted on Thursday to pursue the development of a $390 million baseline general obligation bond package for the November ballot despite a call by Mayor Kirk Watson to wait until 2028.
“I believe we can and we should bring forward significant investments in the future,” he said. “In fact, if we restore compliance with our financial policies and we maintain the discipline we actually will have greater future capacity to do more for this community in 2028.”
A bond election would
The city, which last held a successful GO bond election in 2022 for $350 million of debt for affordable housing, had $1.03 billion of unissued voter-approved GO bond authorization as of the Sept. 30 end of fiscal 2025. Last year,
On Thursday, the city council signed off on a $34.5 million wrongful prosecution and conviction settlement with four individuals to be financed through the sale of non-voter-approved GO bonds.
The council approved up to $1.35 billion of special tax revenue bonds on May 21 for a $1.6 billion project to replace the city’s now-demolished convention center with a facility that will increase rentable event space to 620,000 square feet from 365,000 square feet.
Rich Saskal
The bonds are backed with revenue from certain city hotel occupancy taxes and incremental state tax revenue generated within a project finance zone the city established in 2024. Amounts and timings for issuing the debt are being determined, according to the city, which filed a petition with a Travis County District Court for an expedited validation of the bonds.
An ordinance approved in October
The city also plans to refund hotel occupancy tax-backed debt issued for the prior convention center in order to pledge a 4.5% hotel tax for the upcoming bonds.
“The refunding bonds are a separate, but related item to the expansion bonds and will only be secured by 2% venue HOT,” city documents said. “The 2% venue HOT will not be pledged to the expansion bonds and will cease to be collected upon final maturity or early payoff of (the refunding bonds).”
A petition drive that would have delayed the project fell 494 signatures short of a requirement for 20,000 valid signatures of registered voters, Austin City Clerk Erika Brady determined in November.
Petition backers are appealing a district court’s refusal to force validation in state appellate court after the Texas Supreme Court dismissed
The petition drive by Austin United PAC and others sought a ballot measure to stop the demolition and reconstruction of the convention center for seven years — or until the project was approved by voters — and prioritize city funding for local live music, arts, cultural, and outdoor tourism.
The Austin City Council also approved as much as $1 billion of water and wastewater system revenue bonds last month for the Walnut Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion and enhancement project. The bonds will be used to obtain a direct low-interest loan from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program.
Other financing sources for the $1.5 billion project are $59 million from the Texas Water Development Board Clean Water State Revolving Fund program and funding from Austin Water.
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The plant, which serves more than 50% of Austin and operates at a treatment capacity of 75 million gallons per day, will have its capacity increased to 100 MGD, helping meet future demand and requirements set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for Austin’s projected growth of 1.5 million by 2040, according to a city statement.
A legal logjam over a light rail system eased May 22 when the Texas Supreme Court finally ruled on a procedural issue related to an initial $150 million of bonds for the project. The high court ordered a Travis County Court judge to decide whether the bonds’ issuer, the Austin Transit Partnership, a nonprofit corporation created by the city and Capital Metro Transportation Authority, has standing to seek court validation for the debt.
City taxpayers who filed a lawsuit in 2023, along with the Texas Attorney General’s Office have been challenging the legality of the bonds, which would be paid off with a portion of Austin’s operation and maintenance property taxes
Escalating costs led ATP to downsize Project Connect to an initial less than 10-mile, 15-station system with a similar price tag. The completion of a federal environmental review in January allowed the project to continue a process
ATP said Project Connect is moving forward with construction scheduled to begin next year.
“We are confident in our case and look forward to our day in court,” ATP said in a statement. “The pending litigation has not slowed our progress advancing Austin light rail, which has hit major milestones in the federal funding process, design, and pre-construction work this year.”
Bill Aleshire, an attorney who filed the taxpayers’ lawsuit, cautioned that several issues remain before the court, including the legality of the downsized project and the ability to pay off bonds with property tax revenue that is supposed to be used for operations.
“Their federal funding is uncertain, their ability to issue bonds is uncertain, and they just stubbornly will not listen to us and say it’s time to pause Project Connect and rethink it, that maybe rail isn’t the best way to go at this time and maybe we can’t afford it at this time,” he said.
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