Ellis Paul probably gets compared a lot to Bob Dylan for the sound of his voice and the tone of his songs, but the comparisons really should cease there -- Paul takes his sound off in his own direction more often than not, and the songs have characters of their own that are far from Dylan. Paul'scommentaries are much to do with the ills of the world and the twisted nature of society -- "Autobiography of a Pistol" is a trenchant little piece about a gun gone astray, and how this happened, while "Who Killed John Lennon" starts out pointing the finger at the media and winds up seemingly lost for an answer. Ellis Paul is a fine songwriter, a fair singer; Stories is an excellent album that ranges nicely from the hard-edged to the sad and soft. — Steven McDonald for AllMusic.com