Ellis Paul's song "Last Call" appears
on The Performing Songwriter's Editor's Choice of Top 12 DIYs Compilation, Volume 2. To
order it, call 1-800-883-7664.
Ellis' Management: Ralph Jaccodine Management
P.O. Box 38-1978 Cambridge, MA 02238 (617) 441-3808 Fax: (617) 441-3811 E-Mail: ralphbkwf@aol.com
Perhaps
the greatest sin in story-telling, whether it's prose, poetry, songs, films or plays, is
to create characters that invoke no emotional response. Whether it's love, hate, sympathy,
or disgust, we all want characters that move us in some way. Indifference just won't do.
Ellis Paul is an artist keenly aware of this fact. It's no accident that his last two CD's
are titled Say Something and Stories. Paul tells stories and they do say
something.
Ask
anyone who's a part of it and they'll tell you the Boston folk scene can be a bit hard to
break. Plenty of talent and only so many venues. It takes something special to rise from
the pack. Ellis Paul has that something special and has indeed risen in the ranks. He was
named best acoustic performer at the Boston music awards. He's won the Kerrville New Folk
Contest. He's been featured on countless compilations. The Boston Globe's folk journalist,
Scott Alarik, puts it this way; "No emerging singer-songwriter in recent memory has
been more highly touted or respected by songwriters than Ellis Paul."
Ellis
has recently signed with Rounder Records and will soon start work on his third CD. When
he's not in the studio, he's on the road, taking his characters and stories to audiences
around the country. He spoke with us recently from a motel in San Diego.
Let's play a little word
game. Acoustic or electric?
I guess I
should say electric 'cause I never go there. I never plug in. Actually, I just got an
electric guitar. Emily (Paul's wife) bought it for me. It's sitting there collecting dust.
But someday I'm gonna be Eddie Van Halen.
Okay, boxers or briefs?
I'm
gonna say boxers but I wear briefs. But someday I'm gonna be an old man walking around in
boxers, just because briefs look so bad on old men. (Laughs). They look bad on me now.
Words or music?
I'll
say words on that. I'm really a writer who knows three chords. I really ought to be
writing for some small town newspaper. I wish I had some theory and some Paul McCartney
melody chops.
I think you're very
melodic.
Well,
it's almost accidental. I work around the phrasing of the words. I don't really think up a
melody pattern.
Okay, east or west?
I'll
have to say west. I can't wait to see the beaches here. It's eighty degrees out here.
Have you played
California before?
Yeah,
this is my third trip. I'm doing a few California shows. I'm playing Los Angeles and then
I'm going up to San Francisco and then I'm driving all the way home.
You're driving from San
Francisco to Boston?
Yeah, I
drove on this trip because I brought this filmmaker along. We're doing a documentary on
this tour and all the gigs. It's going to be a two hour film of the American folk circuit.
I've got footage of me playing with a bunch of people in their living rooms. There's me
and Pierce Pettis and Kristian Bush hanging out at Eddie's Attic. I have footage from all
the clubs and the owners.
Do you have plans to
release it in some way?
Yeah, I'll
probably release it around the time the next record comes out and we'll use it as some
kind of promotional device. I'll sell it at shows and Rounder will probably distribute it
to music video stores in major cities that have a decent folk audience.
When is the new record
due?
Well,
I'm going into the studio in January. I've been talking to Jerry Marrotta, he produced
Kristen Hall's last record and plays drums with Suzanne Vega and the Indigo Girls. He's
going to produce it but I've still got some songs to write for it.
You write a lot on the
road, don't you?
Yeah, I've
been working on things. I'm playing so much I just try to get it in where ever I can. I'm
always carrying around chord changes and stuff so as soon as I settle into a place I get
to work.
For the record, how did
you go from an English and literature major to a folk artist?
I was
running track at Boston College and I got hurt. My girlfriend's sister had an extra guitar
floating around and she lent it to me. I locked myself in this little closet in my
apartment on campus and just started playing and playing, sometimes three and four hours a
day. It was fun and I got hooked. I couldn't get my head back into track after my injury
healed so I kept doing this.
Tell me one song you
wish you'd written.
I wish I
had written "Just Like A Woman" by Bob Dylan. That one kills me. The simplicity
of it is really great.
Being the road dog that
you are, what advice can you give to up and coming troubadours?
Get to know
all the waitresses. They're generally great people and they love music and that's why
they're working at a place that has music. If they love your music and you get along well
with them, they're going to be playing your music on the sound system. They play my stuff
a lot at Eddie's Attic in Decatur and I sell a lot of records on the stores down there.
Same thing at Schuba's in Chicago. So I'd say it's not so much the owners or the agents,
it's the waitresses.
Article copyright of The Performing Songwriter.
January/February 1996 issue.
