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Ellis Paul

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Sep 29 2009 - The Day After Everything Changed Musings Part 3

'Annalee' is a song about living in the now. Recognizing you're not young forever. I wrote this about my first girlfriend who had a habit of skinny dipping when we were kids. She had a way of capturing a moment. I liked skipping stones and she liked skinny dipping. She was a distraction. It's a sweet song, we were highschool sweethearts. I still cherish the innocence of being in highschool- there was this sense of freedom and also a sense of the great unknown of what the future will bring. As an adult it's about creating stability and reliability paving a road you can look down that's trustworthy. It's boring being us. As an eighteen year old, it's about taking advantage of the now and the practice of daily adventuring. The song is about the summer before college, and saying goodbye to one life and one group of friends, and hello to the great unknown. 'Annalee, Annalee/ You're shaking the timbers/ you're rattling the leaves/ There a full moon rising in front of me/ Come and stake your claim in my memory'

'Rose Tattoo' is about a man returning to his family after being laid off from his job. He looks in the window and sees his pregnant wife multi tasking, taking care of a toddler and cooking up dinner. She finds him on the porch and convinces him to come in. Most of the song is written about her strength and her belief that they can survive by moving through the troubles as a team. 'If I ever lost you/ I would be lost too/ Just drifitng in a sea of blue/ You're in my skin like a rose tattoo/ like a rose tattoo... '

'River Road' is a song about driving. Finding that one person you love in the world and driving without a destination with them. It's based on the River Road in Edgecomb, Maine, a Road that runs along a river that runs to the ocean. It's beautiful. The song is about sharing the moment without a compass to guide you. Windows down and backroad scenery. 'Would you like to know how it feels/ to trade your wings in on some wheels/ I've got the keys let's take a ride/ stick your hands out the passenger side down the River Road/ It's where I wanna go, down on the River Road/ clear water flows, down on the River Road'

'The Day After Everything Change' is about the moment you realize you're moving on from a relationship. It was written through the prism of Wabi Sabi, which is a Japanese philosophy that embraces beauty and fragility. A relationship wears and cracks and ages, and this person sees it's time to go, and recognizes the beauty of the past and the fading, changing nature of love. 'Leaves they fall, a clock is turning on the wall, colors change/ iron rusts, you can trust, that you'll never be the same/ Cause it's the day after everything changed'

Sep 16 2009 - The Day After Everything Changed Musings Part1

Hey everyone!

I am looking forward to spreading the new CD and new songs all across the country this fall! We are making it available only at shows for now so we can guarantee that supporters of my music are the first buyers. "The Thank You Tour"...

I'll be writing more about the album over the next several weeks, so I can share with you the ins and outs of the songs and the process. I have a lot to say, so it will not all be in today's email.

I'll start off by saying this is the best thing I've ever done over the years I have committed myself to writing more conversationally, and I feel like the impact of the songs here is immediate. The lyrics are more direct, more narrative.

I can't believe we raised as much as we did though the contributors. When the economy was crashing! It fills the sails knowing how much people value my music and wanted to see their names attached to something. I'm proud to have delivered it to them. It says bye bye labels, look what we can do without your involvement. And to have every aspect controlled by me; the song choices, productions style, artwork shows my fingerprint. We didn't hold back from what our vision was asking.

I hope you can come out and hear the songs. You all are my marketing team so please pass on this email and information about shows and the new CD.

Sep 15 2009 - You Never Forget Your First

The first time that I heard myself on the radio I was driving a weather beaten VW van through the streets of Jamaica Plain, MA on the way to my day job working with kids in Boston. I was doing a social work kind of job and music was a dreamy hobby and an outlet for the stress of my day. WERS was playing a song called "Ashes to Dust" off a cassette album I had dropped off to the station. And I was in my van, pulled over twitching and crying and singing along to my own dam voice

It felt like I had won the lottery. And in a way I had.

The stamp of approval that WERS gave me was one little building block to a long road of experiences, shows, songs and faces. Many stations play my songs now, but WERS will always be my first.

And you never forget your first.

Twenty years later, I will run into Boston and switch on WERS and there I will be--nestled between some new songwriter and Bob Dylan. And you know-- it feels like I won the lottery.

You can get a limited edition Ellis Paul Live @WERS cd by donating to their station this week during their fund drive. Musicians like myself and generations after me depend on these stations to support our ability to get bread on the table and support our families...as well as stay on the road and bring our music to all of you! There are three new songs on this CD and you can hear a soundcheck where I was noodling on their gorgeous 1932 Steinway, the melody I was playing ended up as the song Hurricane Angel.

Thanks y'all, we wouldn't be able to continue without you and WERS! You can listen on line or turn your dial to 88.9 FM www.wers.org

Sep 15 2009 - CMT Blog about Jack Ingram and The World Ain't Slown' Down

Alison Bonaguro wrote a blog on CMT.com about Jack Ingram recording The World Ain't Slown' Down for his new release, which I believe is coming out the beginning of the year. They did send me a copy and I am really excited for everyone to hear it! Hope you are having a great holiday season!

Here is what she wrote...thanks Alison!

"Back in September, Craig Shelburne blogged that Jack Ingram was poised for the next level. And that when a label rep played CMT staffers some cuts off Ingram's new album, Shelburne thought that "if any song is going to do it, I'd pick 'The World Ain't Slowin' Down'." I have to agree, since I just heard the original singer-songwriter Ellis Paul play that tune live last weekend. I've been hearing him play it at every show for years, ever since it gained some notoriety when it was featured in the Jim Carrey movie, Me, Myself & Irene. But when Paul announced that Jack Ingram was putting it on his next album, the song took on a whole new meaning for me. I cannot wait to hear what kind of a Texas country spin Ingram puts on this one. And the rest of the album, for that matter."