Despite modern touches, for bluesman Ellis nothing beats the road

Despite modern touches, for bluesman Ellis nothing beats the road
August 26, 2010
By Jonathan Tully
pbpulse

he music business is very different now from when Tinsley Ellis started out in Georgia in the late 1970s. But there’s one thing that still holds true — for most musicians, to get noticed, nothing beats the road.

Ellis’ blues guitar has taken him pretty much everywhere — “The only place I haven’t been is Asia,” he says. He visits South Florida, where he spent his high school years, for four shows in the coming week. He plays Boca Raton’s Backroom Blues Bar & Grill on Friday, Seminole Casino Coconut Creek on Saturday, Chef John’s American Bistro and Blues in Jupiter on Monday and B.B. King’s at CityPlace in West Palm Beach on Sept. 2.

“In general, the road is how (blues musicians) make a living, whether it’s B.B. King or you’re just starting out,” Ellis said. “It’s just how it’s done. I don’t know of any blues-type musician who can make a living just staying home and making a video or an occasional TV appearance.”

The road may be the way Ellis still gets his name out there, but he’s embraced new technology, which have become quite a big help to him.

“It’s never been better for a listener, I do know that,” Ellis said in a telephone interview. “The store never closes and it never runs out of your music. To find my CDs in record stores — if that’s where they even sell those anymore — you’d probably have to hit a few places before you found it.”

In addition, Ellis doesn’t have to wait to record an idea — he pulls out his BlackBerry and sings into his voice-activated recorder.

“I sing into my phone, then when I get back to Atlanta, I see if I’m still in love with it,” he said. “I don’t know about setting aside time to write songs. When it comes, man, it comes, and you’d better write it down or sing it into your cellphone.”

As a result, he’s considered one of the more consistent blues guitarists out there with album after album of pure blues. His most recent album, Speak No Evil, has been as lauded as any in his career, although it also brings new sound to the table.

All told, it’s been 11 albums, 150 live dates a year and a career that has seen its share of big success (he wrote the song “A Quitter Never Wins”, which ended up on Jonny Lang’s million-selling album Lie To Me in 1997). And yet, when it comes to playing South Florida, he’s as excited as ever.

He lived in Hollywood as a teenager, and went to school at St. Andrew’s in Boca Raton. He remembers going to a local record store to pick up The Beatles’ Abbey Road on the day it came out, and has a fondness for the long-gone Hollywood Sportatorium, where he saw B.B. King for the first time and started down his bluesy road.

“When I get the opportunity to be in the county where I went to high school, it always excites me,” Ellis said. “I love to poke the old music fans about the Sportatorium.”

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