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7/18/2006
Jim Carnes
The title of this terrific 12-song set (which was released Tuesday) refers to "the indelible ink of experience," says singer-songwriter Ellis -- and the experience that led him to these original visions is remarkable indeed. Ellis is the son of bluegrass banjoist Tony Ellis and godson of bluegrass patriarch Bill Monroe, but he's following his own path here. This is Americana roots music like no one else is making, rural in flavor, bluegrassy, yes, and sometimes gospel-tinged and at other times folky in
nature. It's produced by Jim Dickinson, who has an innate ability to realize the potential of each track -- even the strange (E-bow on acoustic guitar) instrumental "When Leadbelly Walked the River Like Christ." Dickinson says Ellis has "invented his own sort of 'body blues' genre," and he may be right. You won't hear anybody else doing material like this -- sacred and secular, personal yet universal.
These are songs about the journey of life. "We fumble when we're uncertain, when we should be at our best. ... We lose what we hold too dearly. I tell you these things sincerely: It's the perfect ones who break," he sings in the eloquent "Perfect Ones Who Break." "The Call," written in the wake of 9/11, is a gospel blues with sterling Delta steel guitar and an inspired vocal assist from the Memphis soul group the
Masqueraders. Ellis' wife, Julie, lends harmony vocals to an arrangement of Mississippi John Hurt's "Here Am I, Lord Send Me." The set closes with the spare "Dust Will Write My Name" ("Lord above, devil below, each call out my name. So do you, my angel babe, 'Billy, it's time to lay.' ") -- and fatalistic though it may be, it brings a satisfyingly peaceful end to things.