Spotlight Album Review: Ellis Paul "55"
ELLIS PAUL - 55
For more than 30 years, ever since he moved from Maine to Boston (on the strength of a track scholarship at Boston College), Ellis Paul has epitomized literate song craftsmanship. Now ensconced in Charlottesville, VA, he’s continued to release a string of high-quality albums. His 22nd and most recent release, 55, reveals a mature artist at the height of his powers.
The album’s opening track, “Cosmos,” could come off as pretentious, but it rings true, embracing his life experience and love of his children:
I’ve touched the sun and the sea
I’ve followed the truth in me
I’ve seen the divine
And I sang the songs I felt your
love in me
The production is simple, drawing on the album’s core musicians – just Ellis on guitar, Radoslav Lorkovic on accordion, and Mark Dann (who engineered the album in his home studio) on bass – as is the title track, “55,” with addition of Eric Parker on drums. That song conjures up artifacts from his youth (highway maps, rotary phones, and 8-track tapes) to reflect on the passage of time and, in light of the pandemic, perhaps a little survivor’s guilt: “I’m 55, trying to figure out/How I’m still alive.” As for many people, John Prine’s passing was a touchstone for his sense of loss:
This virus don’t care
If you’ve got mouths to feed
Or about songs you’re singing
While the whole world’s bleeding
But you get to stay and John Prine’s leaving
Who’s in charge of the order?
As always, many of Ellis’s compositions are co-writes. On “Who You Are” he collaborates with Abbie Gardner, who also contributes vocals and Dobro. A couple others are with his frequent collaborator Kristian Bush (of Sugarland fame): “Be the Fire,” which could be a commencement address (“When it’s time to shine, shine your brightest/When it’s time to fly, fly your highest/When it’s time to work, work your hardest”); and “Gold in California,” which summons a the latter-day appeal of the West Coast.
Back in 1994, Ellis titled an album Stories, and, true to that tradition, there is great storytelling here. “Holy” is a larger production number about an Irishman, Declan McLaren, who yearns to see his girlfriend in America and apparently books a ticket on the Titanic (too bad James Cameron has already made that movie). “The Gift” is an encounter set in Nashville, with Mark Dann’s electric guitar channeling George Harrison and Laurie MacAllister supplying superb harmony vocals (as she does on five tracks), and wonderfully tangible details:
And now I’ve seen an ocean of years roll past
And my memories are like sea glass
But I can still see her hair fall in waves
And I’ll never forget the day
“Tattoo Lady” uses circus imagery (and Dann’s electric guitar) to express the thrill and danger of show business and art, as he did in “Kick Out the Lights (Johnny Cash)”:
I am the canvas
A portrait in madness
I let the needle prick my skin
I am the painting
A story in waiting
Turn on the buzz
And let the ink kick in
That’s followed by “Sometimes Trouble Is Good,” which counsels us to be patient in times of trouble (as Ellis has in his personal life): “When you feel lost in the woods/Fight for the day/Inch by inch/Step by step.” One of the most affecting songs, “When Angels Falls,” perhaps inspired by the Parkland murders, describes a mass killing from the eyes of a shooter, but, in manner of a Greek chorus, asks:
Are you gonna fight?
Fight for you guns?
Or fight for your children?
Your children?
A pair of love songs are antidotes to the sorrow and strife. “Everybody Knows It Now,” co-written with Kristian Bush, is a declaration of love of, I assume, to Laurie MacAllister, who has been his soulmate for many years:
You’re a songbird
Singing at a festival
You landed on my shoulder
Sang these words into my ear
I want you I need you I’ll take you
Everyone knows it now
The album’s closer, “A Song to Say Goodbye,” is a toast to love (“A whiskey kiss/You bit my lip/And then the whole night slipped away”). At the end of the day, all you need is love, and Ellis expresses it as creatively as anyone.