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| Tinsley Ellis Brings Tough Love To New CD Coming February 3 On Heartfixer Music Acclaimed guitar master Tinsley Ellis announces a February 3 release date for Tough Love, the latest CD from the veteran Georgia-based blues rocker on his own Heartfixer Music label, distributed nationally by Landslide Records. Produced by Ellis, Tough Love marks the third release on his own imprint (launched in 2013 with the all-instrumental Get It! CD, followed by last yearТs Midnight Blue), and showcases his continued growth as an expressive songwriter in a variety of shades of blues and roots styles. Tinsley Ellis will celebrate the release of Tough Love with an ongoing tour that will take him throughout the USA, as well as a number of major venues and festival dates in Canada. Locally, heТll treat his Atlanta hometown fans with a special night of music at the Variety Playhouse on Saturday, February 21. Backing up EllisТ tough vocals and stinging guitar work on the 10 all-original tracks are several former long-time members of Delbert McClintonТs band: keyboard whiz Kevin McKendree (Brian Setzer), bassist Steve Mackey, and drummer Lynn Williams (John Hiatt). Recorded at McKendreeТs Rock House studio outside Nashville, Tough Love combines first rate musicianship with TinsleyТs expert production guidance, surely the mark of an experienced craftsman, whose lessons learned from gifted mentors such as legendary producers Tom Dowd and Eddy Offord have resulted in sonically superb music. This album just flowed out of us in the studio, and that's a good thing for a blues album to do, Ф says Ellis about the recording sessions. УMaking a record is all about capturing a vibe in the studio and the vibe was great during these sessions. Each song had a different groove. We used an arsenal of vintage guitars, amps, drums and keyboards to make the songs sound more quirky. You can't go wrong making an album for the fans, and that's what we tried to do with Tough Love. The new album demonstrates Tinsley's most-creative and versatile effort yet in a lengthy career of highly-acclaimed albums, revered as much by fans and concertgoers as critics and radio station programmers. The catchy lead-off track, Seven Years, sets the tone for a great musical journey, followed by the rollicking shuffle groove of УMidnight Ride, which Tinsley describes as a guitar conversation between Freddie King and Albert Collins (with Ellis playing both parts). Give It Away features Ellis in a more acoustic setting, complete with Dobro and vocals that recall Eric Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard in timbre. The Dylan-esque Hard Work also tips a guitar pick to JJ Cale, while All in the Name of Love sounds as if it could have been recorded in a 1970s Hi Records session in Memphis, with Kevin McKendree channeling Charles HodgesТ organ grooves and Jim Hoke/Steve Herrman guesting on soulful horns. Should I Have Lied, another song with guitar influences from one of TinsleyТs main mentors, Freddie King, is a plaintive soul-drenched ballad; and the Jimmy Reed-influenced Everything, complete with Ellis' recording debut on harmonica, are just a few of the other standout tracks in an album full of highlights. Since emerging as the driving guitar force in the seminal Atlanta blues group The Heartfixers in 1982, Tinsley Ellis has played in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Europe, Australia and South America. He has shared stages with almost every major blues star, including Stevie Ray Vaughan, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, Son Seals, Koko Taylor, Albert Collins and many others. Whether heТs out with his own band or sitting in with major artists like Derek Trucks, Buddy Guy, The Allman Brothers Band, GovТt Mule or Widespread Panic, he always digs deep and plays, as Guitar Player magazine said, УЕas if his life depended on it. With Tough Love and ongoing non-stop touring, Ellis will bring his monumental guitar work and intensely powerful vocals to rock and blues fans all over the world, letting his songs and his guitar do the talking. write your comments about the article :: © 2015 Jazz News :: home page |