Chattanooga’s Live Music Scene – Blues Star Tinsley Ellis Returns Wednesday

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Chattanooga’s Live Music Scene – Blues Star Tinsley Ellis Returns Wednesday
September 12, 2011
by Bob Payne
The Chattanooga.com

Veteran bluesman Tinsley Ellis will be at Rhythm & Brews on Wednesday evening, marking his first visit to town since he appeared in the First Tennessee pavilion with Robert Cray a couple of years ago. Most blues music aficionados thought Tinsley was the better of the two on that night, although you would never get Ellis to say that.

I did an interview with Tinsley Ellis before his 2008 appearance and you can read it here. I think the interview says much about Tinsley and his ever so humble attitude towards his stellar career.


Tinsley records on Alligator Records, the gold standard for blues artists, and has a new CD out – Speak No Evil. Produced by Ellis, Speak No Evil is the most guitar-driven album of his career and features Tinsley's fiercest, most brutally honest and hard-hitting original songs to date (it's also his first Alligator release with all Tinsley-penned originals). Rolling Stone said Tinsley plays “feral blues guitar...non-stop gigging has sharpened his six-string to a razor’s edge...his eloquence dazzles...he achieves pyrotechnics that rival early Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.”