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7/26/2006
Michael Toland
Memphis-based songwriter/guitarist William Lee Ellis has quite a pedigree: godson of Bill Monroe, son of a Bluegrass Boy, recipient of a master’s degree in classical guitar performance, devotee of Rev. Gary Davis and other sacred country bluesmen. He leans most heavily on the latter influence on God’s Tattoos, his fifth album. Using religious imagery but never becoming pedantic, Ellis infuses “Four Horses,” “Dust Will Write My Name” and “When Leadbelly Walked in the River Like Christ” with soul in huge doses, updating Davis (“Search My Heart”) and Mississippi John Hurt (“Here I Am, Lord Send Me”) as if they were written for him. “Perfect Ones Who Break,” “The Missing Moon and Stars” and the title cut put the blues in the background for more general singer/songwriter fare, but his gritty singing, reminiscent of Dan Penn’s, keeps it away from James Taylor territory. God’s Tattoos is the best kind of American roots music record: respectful of tradition, but dedicated to moving that tradition forward.