Interview with Tinsley Ellis

Interview with Tinsley Ellis

By Martine Ehrenclou

World renowned guitarist, singer and songwriter Tinsley Ellis is known as a high energy blues rocker, a ferocious guitar player and performer. He now offers something entirely new. His first-ever solo acoustic album, Naked Truth, out on Alligator Records.

On Naked Truth, Ellis strips back his blistering blues-rock to the folk-blues styles of Muddy Waters, Skip James, Son House and Robert Johnson. And it’s that front porch simplicity that brings forth another side entirely to this acclaimed artist. The album is vulnerable, rootsy and showcases Ellis’ passion and truth fueled by an acoustic setting. He’s been touring for the last year as an all-acoustic artist, many of his shows with the lauded Marcia Ball. Now, Ellis is touring with “Two Guitars and a Car.”

Highly regarded the world over as a first rate guitarist, his songwriting is inventive, soulful and melodic, his vocals powerful. Over the years, Ellis has shared stages with everyone from Otis Rush, Gregg Allman, and Koko Taylor to The Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gov’t Mule, Jimmy Buffett, Warren Haynes, Christone ‘Kingfish” Ingram’ and many more.

I spoke to Tinsley Ellis by phone from his home in Atlanta.

Rock & Blues Muse
Naked Truth is your first solo acoustic album. How did you decide to do it?

Tinsley Ellis
This is an album that I’ve always wanted to make, an all-acoustic album. I really wasn’t planning to do it just me completely live with no overdubs or anything. But that’s the way it came out. It sounded real good in that format. I thought maybe I would put some light drums, maybe upright bass or piano, harmonica or something like that. But the songs sounded really nice to me, just sort of completely stripped out, which is cool because now on future albums I could build upon that. I certainly couldn’t have any less people on it unless it would be an album of total silence (Laughter)

Rock & Blues Muse
(Laughter) But I don’t think you need it. It’s so powerful the way it is.

Tinsley
I’m real excited about Naked Truth. I’ve been sitting on this record for months and months. It’s definitely a risky thing to do because I’ve always been known as someone who makes band albums and hard rocking albums, and this has taken a really hard left turn.

Rock & Blues Muse
Is it much more vulnerable for you?

Tinsley
It really is. That is where I feel the most vulnerable–when they come and tell me it’s time to go on stage. It might be at a big festival with thousands of people out there, and I could even be sandwiched between a couple of rocking bands. And then I go out there with just a guitar, so I’ve really got to keep it foot stomping at that point.

Rock & Blues Muse
The Great Tinsley Ellis gets nervous. (Laughter)

Tinsley
(Laughter) Oh, yeah. It feels like that when they come get me to go on stage. It feels almost like the executioner has arrived to take me to the gallows or something. (Laughter) But usually at the end of the first song, it’ll start feeling really natural. But at first, to go up there without drums and bass is really scary.

Rock & Blues Muse
Do people go absolutely nuts after the first song or does it take the crowd a little bit to get into the pace?

Tinsley
Well, it takes people by surprise. They may not have heard the news that it’s just going to be me doing acoustic songs and stories. But in general, there’s always going to be naysayers. People who open a restaurant definitely would find that out. You could have the best food in the world and someone is always going to complain.

But they like it a lot. It’s popular because I do some talking during the show too, talk about how I wrote some of the songs. And I do songs from my entire catalog of albums. I just play them the way that I wrote them originally and talk about how I wrote those old songs. What I found is that there’s not a single song that I’ve ever recorded that I can’t play in this format. It just sounds different. Also, I’ve been doing some cool quirky kind of covers in the show, people like Bob Dylan or Greg Allman. Basically, whatever the hell I want do. I did a Buddy Holly song the other night to commemorate his passing on that weekend. I can do what I want to do. It’s going to be great to be able to perform the entire album in its entirety and to have it sound just like the album. That’s a first for me.

Rock & Blues Muse
Tell me about “Devil in the Room.” How did you choose it?

Tinsley
“Devil in the Room.” That one’s played on the Resonator and it’s got that big foot stomp in it. And it’s really the only song on the album that I would consider to be Hill Country Blues. And of course Hill Country Blues, the biggest proponent of that was RL Burnside. Songs that are just a groove and might even only have one chord like “Devil in the Room” does. That’s a song that has gotten people up and dancing, which is really cool to see in a festival when I do that.

Rock & Blues Muse
I bet “Grown Ass Man” does that too.

Tinsley
It does. And that’s kind of my theme song, “Grown Ass Man.” Blues is grown ass music. (Laughter) It’s tongue in cheek about getting older, and I think a lot of people could probably relate to that expression.

“Grown Ass Man”

 
Rock & Blues Muse
Tell me about “Death Letter Blues”–that was produced by Eddie 9V, right?

Tinsley
Yes, it was. And I just think the world of that kid. I call him a kid even though he’s a grown ass man. In spirit he is definitely, but he’s a kid. I just think he’s on his way. I loved the sound he was getting in his studio. I actually went over there to do the initial demos for the album because I was kind of new at recording in this format. And he and his brother did these demos for me. His brother Lane Kelly is the engineer and of course Eddie was the producer. I wasn’t quite ready to make the album. That was before I had done all the shows. But I did “Death Letter Blues” for the album and I listened and said, “The demo is better than the album version.” And I just took a chance and put the demo on the album instead of using the one that I recorded for the album.

He really got me fired up on that song. He was gesturing wildly and really egging me on. I look forward to working with him in the future, regardless of whether it’s electric or acoustic. In addition to producing his own stuff, I bet you he’s going to be a big producer in the future.

Rock & Blues Muse
I happen to love your instrumentals. They are beautiful. “Silver Mountain” has a gorgeous melody. Your songwriting seems like your secret weapon. You experimented with some different tunings too. Can you tell me about “Silver Mountain” and some of the other instrumentals?

Tinsley
Thank you. There’s I think seven or eight different tunings on this album. And “Silver Mountain” is one that’s in a very strange tuning that’s used by people like Jimmy Page, for instance. It’s the same tuning he played “Kashmir” in. It’s definitely a folk thing. I didn’t want to be all blues songs. I would feel like somewhat of an imposter if I did that. I wanted it to also touch on the folk music that I like. People like Leo Kottke and some of the people like Jimmy Page or Stephen Stills that did such good acoustic stuff, even on their rocking songs. Some of it’s got great acoustic guitar on it and experiment with open tuning. I picked the best three originals in that format for this album, but I bet I’ve got a hundred of those kind of songs.

And it all started off when I was a teenager and heard Leo Kottke for the first time. And he was tuning the guitar every which way and strumming and playing slide on it. It was just really kind of a revelation.

“Easter Song” is one of the newer ones also in an alternate tuning. I just sort of sat on the sofa and just started picking. I write most of my songs as the sun’s coming up. That’s when my brain works best. I get stupider as the day goes on. I start off the day as smart as I’m ever going to be. (Laughter)

Rock & Blues Muse
(Laughter) It’s beautiful. I turned that song up so I could just listen.

Tinsley
I wanted to have some pretty songs on the album because I think a lot of times people just need to calm the hell down. (Laughter)

Rock & Blues Muse
(Laughter) You tour a lot. Is touring second nature at this point? How is it with this album since it’s just you and your guitars? Do you have people with you this time?

Tinsley
No, it’s just me. Alligator Records calls it “Two Guitars and a Car.” That’s the name of the tour. Of course there are a lot of CDs and vinyl albums to sell people in a suitcase. I can’t wear the same thing every night but I’d like to. It’s bare bones. And I’ve got a tour that I’m going to do the whole country, literally the whole country this year, first half of the year, then I’m going to do it again the second half. And that’s not normal behavior for a 66-year-old man, really.

Rock & Blues Muse
How is that for you?

Tinsley
Well, I try to keep my head on straight, try to get my rest. But I’m looking at some pretty long drives, especially out West, Pacific Northwest and Rockies and stuff. Things are a little farther apart there than they are say in New England where there’s a big city every hour. It’s going to be something. But I’m just going to do it. I did it last year with Marcia Ball. We did the whole country. I almost did the whole country twice by myself. She was flying a lot, but I drove the whole thing.

There’s nothing luxurious about flying, especially with a couple of guitars. So if I drive, I can have all my things, which ain’t much. But I wouldn’t be able to fly with all this stuff. There’ll be some flying in there. You can’t get to two of the states by driving. And Europe of course will always be calling, and so I’ll be flying some. But I’m a driver. I like it.

Rock & Blues Muse
You still have the guitar string from B.B. King?

Tinsley
I still have it, the string. It’s about 10 feet away from where I’m propped up right now.

Rock & Blues Muse
Do you have it framed or something?

Tinsley
No. I probably should make a scrapbook. But I’ve had this manila envelope that I’ve got all my photos and autographs and stuff from all the years as a blues fan in there, all the blues people that I could get close enough to get their autograph and get a picture made with them. I just kept those things. And that’s one of the things that’s in there is a postcard. B.B. King actually gave me the postcard in the lobby of the hotel I saw him play as a teenager. He was giving out postcards to all the kids that were coming out. He knew his future audience. And I already scarfed up the string that he broke off the stage because I was sitting in the very front row, very front table.

I kept the string and I taped it to the postcard. It’s just a piece of the string. It’s probably about four inches long. Every once in a while I’ll pluck on it a little bit, just sort of moving around the scotch tape to the postcard with B.B.’s picture on it. Every time I would go see B.B. King after that, which was many years until he passed, I would tell him that story. And he always acted like he remembered. That was BB King’s gift–always giving you the impression that he remembered you, that he knew you.

When I was in the presence of people like B.B. King, it’s almost like you’re sitting there with Moses or something. It was an amazing feeling of royalty. He came up in a really hard time and a time that I can only imagine, and through all sorts of oppression and poverty, things that I can only think about because that’s not my experience. And that’s why when people ask me, I think it’s better if somebody describes me as being blues rather than me describe myself as blues because to me, blues means something different than just the music: the lifestyle, and the experiences. I like to mix in other kinds of music with my blue songs so that it gives kind of a clear message of the fact that, yes, blues is my passion, but probably rock and roll would best describe my heritage.

Rock & Blues Muse
You’re known for your great songwriting as well as your guitar and vocals. Besides a “A Quitter Never Wins,” which Johnny Lang covers, who else has done your songs?

Tinsley
Well, “Quitter” was the big one. And most recently, John Mayall put it on his last album. It was great. John Mayall was part of that movement that got me into blues in the first place and he’s sort of the father of all blues rock because he was an Englishman and came out before Rolling Stones and Beatles and stuff. He’s older than them. John just hit 90. And for him to do “Quitter Never Wins” felt like I came full circle. And it’s kind of a good theme for him because we don’t want him to quit. That was an artistic feather in my cap to have the man do my tune.

Melvin Taylor did that song as well on one of his albums. And John Lee Hooker Jr. did it. Every once in a while I’ll go into a bar and a band will be playing it on stage. That makes me feel really nice. Most recently, I placed a song on a couple of the Blood Brothers albums, the studio and the live album. They did my song “Tooth and Nail.” It was always nice to hear that. They’re my buddies, Albert and Mike. Super albums too, both of them. It was nice driving around in my car and I’d hear my lick come on, and I’d turn it up. They’re like my younger brothers, those guys. Then most recently on Mike’s new album, he did one of my other songs. I don’t know if you’ve heard his new album yet, but it is a real corker. Joe Bonamassa produced it. Mike’s pulling from a deeper place now obviously with his loss. Music has been Mike’s salvation and music’s been my salvation. I spend a lot of time writing songs.

Rock & Blues Muse
Is your whole life pretty much music?

Tinsley
Yeah, it is. I think you got to be all in with it. If you’re not all in with music, then you’re going to lose out to somebody else who is all in. It’s kind of like professional sports or something. You got to be all in with it. And I’ve missed pretty much most family weddings and even a few funerals and graduations and stuff like that because I’ve been out on the road doing it. And I’m not saying that’s good or bad. I’m just saying that I noticed that that’s kind of the way it is. You got to be ready to go. And sometimes the road calls, you just got to hop in and go. And most times it’s planned out, but you say no too many times and people stop calling. So, I’ve been all in for a long time.

And songwriting is a great way to keep one’s chops up because you’re still playing, you’re still spending time on your instrument. But at the same time, you’re being productive and being creative. It’s not like you’re just sitting there playing scales or something. Songwriting has been the only thing musically that’s ever rivaled performing. Performing is my favorite.

I am happy to have what was my hobby initially, which was playing music, turn into my job. And yeah, I don’t know what I would have done if I wasn’t a musician, really. Maybe a life of crime. I’m not sure. Maybe. (Laughter)

Rock & Blues Muse
(Laughter) Why do you say that?

Tinsley
I think when you get up on stage, I’m kind of a mellow fellow a lot of times. I get up on stage and I’m kind of stomping around and stuff. I think there is a lot of acting involved and a lot of subterfuge, being somebody else up there. I think I would’ve probably been some sort of white collar criminal. I’m too much of a coward to actually steal physical things. (Laughter)

Rock & Blues Muse
(Laughter) You couldn’t be a bank robber?

Tinsley
(Laughter) No, I’m too much of a coward for that. I think I would’ve probably been more of a numbers man, an accountant criminal.

Rock & Blues Muse
That’s funny. I’m glad you chose music.

Tinsley
It chose me I think. It’s more of a calling than an occupation, I think.
Anytime I ever tried to turn my back on music, I’d turn around, it was still there waiting for me just like a sweet dog would be.

For more information on Naked Truth and Tinsley Ellis see HERE