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Ellis Paul

Feature

Nov 10 2005 - A Night in Richmond, VA

11-10-05A train rips by the window and the building shakes and the patrons quake and Robbie Schaeffer is singing about Independence, Indiana. I'm in the back room tapping away at an internet connection sipping on the best damn cup of coffee I've had in ages. I am doing a Virginia swing this weekend, and having the Eddie from Ohio guys swing through on the shows with me. Can't beat playing music with friends.Last weekend I was traveling with Don Conoscenti and played four shows in Chicago, Madison, St Paul, and the little wee town of Mankato, MN. This is a great time to be ripping through the upper midwest, the cornfields are standing tall against the plow, and the sky gives us those long aching sunsets that go on and on. I listen to Don philosophize and to the music of Sam Baker on the radio.I've come across a couple songwriters I would like to tell you about. Sam Baker is a Texas songwriter with a gift for phrasing and story telling that I can only compare to the great Bill Morrissey. He just put out one of my favotrite records, and he knows how to do those little three minute movies in your head songs... He drawls and slurs and creaks along vocally, but it is all like a good ale, I generally talk funny too after listening to him too much. It's infectious and might actually require some speech therapy, or some kind of mental massage to bring me back. His voice rolls on like a prairie tumbleweed.
Click here for his website