Skip to main content

Ellis Paul

Feature

Ellis Paul FolkWax Artist of the Year!


2001 was a great year for FolkWax, but clearly one of the highlights of the year had to be Contributing Editor Jamie Heiman's interview with Ellis Paul that ran October 4. This is not only because Paul is a great artist with great stories, but also because of Jamie and Ellis' touching discussion about how the events of September 11 affected his music. As Paul spoke of his feelings he took a marker from Jamie and proceeded to write "Anti-Terror Machine" with a hand-drawn American flag on the faces of his guitars where, we trust, they are still speaking out loud. This was a bold statement from one of America's best Folk singers.

That wonderful moment in a great interview is not the only reason that the readers of FolkWax have voted Ellis Paul to be the FolkWax Folk Artist of 2001. Certainly his fantastic music was another reason. Paul released Sweet Mistakes last year, which was also nominated for FolkWax Folk Album of 2001.

On the final ballot with Ellis Paul was Lucy Kaplansky, whose wonderful release Every Single Day was reviewed by Contributing Editor Arthur Wood along with an interview in our All-Lucy Kaplansky Issue on August 23. Paul literally nosed by Kaplansky in the final vote by our readers. Also on the ballot were Bob Dylan, Slaid Cleaves and David Carter and Tracy Grammer. The staff of FolkWax congratulates Ellis Paul and all of the nominees.