I just spent two nights with an amazing singer-songwriter/ folkie, Ellis Paul. www.ellispaul.com If you have seen Me Myself and Irene or Shallow Hal, Ellis' songs are on there (World Ain't slowing Down and Sweet Mistakes). Ellis is a troubador in the Woody Guthrie tradition, focusing on telling everyman's, everywoman's and a few other odd characters' stories, with a clear, uncluttered voice, both his and his guitars'. He's quite personable when performong, too. thursday night, he stopped the show so a man could propose. She said yes & Ellis made jokes about playing weddings, proposals, bar mitzvahs and "I'll do divorces, too. Anybody have anything they need to get off their chests?" I'm a long-ish term fan, getting connected in the mid-late 90s, and I have seen amazing musical growth as he pushes to find that one story that needs to be told. Good people good, laid-back time. One particular fave: The Ballad of Chris McCandless from The Speed of Trees We met on the highway. He was smilin’, A mystic in torn blue jeans. The kid left his trust fund to come out walking. He said, “I’m Alexander, Supertramp, A Star catcher, a Chaser of dreams…” I could’ve sworn he heard the earth a’talkin’, talkin’… “Sometimes,” he said, “don’t it feel like the concrete’s closing in? We’re putting bricks on the horizon…” Was he chasing fool’s gold, Or a holy man walking a dirt road till the end? I don’t know but I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless. I stepped in the wild of a dream. The horizon in South Dakota was an ocean of harvest grain. In a dusty silo we found work for the taking. We’d hitched up from California, But he never told me his real name. Never told me what past he was out here shaking. We’re all shaking something. “Sometimes,” he said, “don’t it feel like technology’s closing in? We’re raising towers on the horizon…” Was he chasing fool’s gold Or a holy man walking A dirt road till the end? I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless I stepped in the wild of a dream— a stone, a path, a river of glass, The night sky— Hey, can you see stars From wherever you are? With both feet on the planet Can you feel this old world Spinning around you? The pull of the magnet Is gonna take you from your town, Your home town. In a broken school bus they found him In the heart of the Alaska range The journey ends When the heart stops beating— Our time is so fleeting Sometimes, don’t it feel like the concrete’s closing in— like we’re putting bricks on the horizon? Are you chasin fool’s gold, Or a holy man walking a dirt road till the end? I don’t know, but I hitched a ride with Chris McCandless, I stepped in the wild with Chris McCandless, And I felt alive with Chris McCandless. I was wide awake in the dream, the dream, the dream.
bad bad blood is probly my favorite song of his right now, but that may change since i truthfully havnt heard much of his stuff yet
