...getting back to Blues!
Tinsley Ellis (born June
4, 1957, Atlanta, Georgia) is an American blues/rock musician who
grew up in southern Florida. His love for electric blues grew by
listening to British Invasion bands such as
The Yardbirds,
The Animals,
Cream, and
The Rolling Stones. In 1977, he played with the
Haygood Band
while attending at Oxford Emory University near Atlanta. Two years
later, already an accomplished musician, he returned to Atlanta and
joined his first band,
The Alley Cats, a group that included Preston Hubbard of
The Fabulous Thunderbirds
and Mike Marinelli saxophonist, who was a Berklee College of Music
woodwind instructor. Ellis graduated from Emory University in 1979 with a
degree in history. In 1981 he formed
The Heartfixers, with the singer and harmonica player Chicago Bob Nelson. The group recorded three albums for the small
Landslide
record label, one with the singer Nappy Brown before breaking up in
1988. The same year Ellis signed a recording contract with Chicago’s
Alligator Records.
His debut solo album on Alligator Records
Georgia Blue was released in 1988. Alligator then reissued two of his earlier CDs,
Cool On It and
Tore Up (featuring Nappy Brown). Ellis' next four releases were
Fanning The Flames (1989),
Trouble Time (1992),
Storm Warning (1994), and
Fire It Up (1997).
Ellis’
reputation and media coverage continued to grow. He appeared on NBC-TV
Sports during the network’s 1996 Summer Olympic coverage. Ellis shifted
to
Capricorn Records in 2000 and released
Kingpin. In 2002 he joined
Telarc Records, producing two CDs:
Hell Οr High Water and
The Hard Way.
All the while Ellis never stopped touring. "A musician never got famous
by staying home" Ellis says. Ellis claims to have performed live, at
least once, in all 50 United States.
He returned to Alligator Records in 2005 with the live album,
Live! Highwayman. In 2007 he released the studio album,
Moment Οf Truth, followed in 2009 with
Speak No Evil. In 2013 we saw
Get It!
He
has shared stages with Warren Haynes, Widespread Panic, Allman
Brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Son Seals, Koko
Taylor, Albert Collins and Buddy Guy...
We see him in the following video. The title of the song is
Devil For A Dime (from a concert 4 years ago)...
