THE CLUB THAT BUILT ME!
Celebrating 30 years at Passim - Oct. 17, 2019
Hey Friends—
I have lots of shows and things to catch you up on!
MY CLUB PASSIM HISTORY
Back in the summer of 1989, I was doing everything short of smoke signals to get the attention of Bob Donlin at Club Passim—calling, mailing demo tapes, sending packages, hoping for a crack in the door of the most hallowed folk room in America. Passim was tiny, barely a hundred seats, but to songwriters it was the Taj Mahal. I was obsessed with playing there.
Bob finally gave me a slot—opening for the opener with three songs on a Sunday afternoon. But when I showed up, guitar in hand and nerves in overdrive, he realized he’d double-booked the slot and sent me home. I walked across the Mass Ave. bridge with tears in my eyes. Heartbroken doesn’t quite cover it.
He made it right the following weekend. I opened for two young up-and-comers named John Gorka and Sarah Hickman. Bob liked what he heard and kept bringing me back—first as an opener for nearly everyone who came through town, and eventually for weekends of my own, four to six shows at a stretch. He put me on their anniversary galas at the Wang. I could feel myself getting better, sharper, more myself every time I stepped onto that stage.
Passim gave me everything. I was booked for the Newport Folk Festival because of that room. I met lifelong friends there, including Matt Smith, who now runs the place. My manager Ralph met his wife there. I even ended up serving as co-chair of their board of directors. My roots sank into that club, and a whole life grew out of it.
I’ve played Club Passim close to three hundred times—the most I’ve ever played anywhere. I learned how to do my job between those brick walls. I heard the best songwriters in America on that stage and studied everything about them—their writing, their tuning patterns, their stage banter, their quiet authority.
I started doing New Year’s Eve shows there in 1993 and missed only one year—1995. Which means this will be my 32nd New Year’s run. And now, in the age of miracles and fiber-optic cables, you can even watch from home.
Passim has marked every year of my adult life.
This year, we’re doing something special to kick things off.
Monday, December 29th: a Beatles Singalong—well, Scream-Along.
My love for the Beatles has only deepened over time, so come howl the harmonies with us and help bring in the New Year the way the gods intended.
Tuesday, Dec 30 and Wednesday, Dec 31 we’ll be celebrating my songs and my history at the club. The band will be Laurie MacAllister, Don Conoscenti, Radoslav Lorković, and on Monday, Al Struck joins the fun.
We’ve got incredible openers, too:
Sam Robbins on Monday
Shanna in a Dress on Tuesday
Laurie MacAllister on Wednesday
Four more shows to toss onto the Passim pile—each one another ring in the tree of my life.
THE NOVEL
I am now writing Chapter 20 of a music/illustration/novel called “The Last Song Mankind Wrote”. Next week, I am posting a few more early chapters on my Patreon page. I am half way through the writing, then I have to properly record the album and do the illustrations.
In "The Last Song Mankind Wrote", Quinn McRae—once a touring musician, now a survivor of the Seven-Day War—broadcasts pirate transmissions across the wreckage of the Adirondacks, leaving coded messages in song for anyone still alive. When he discovers his wife and daughter have been taken to a fortified “child integration” bunker run by humans allied with the AI machines, the Whytes, Quinn joins a small militia to retrieve a hidden cache of EMP weapons and mount a rescue before the Machines tighten their control. Told through prose, hand-drawn illustrations, bunker schematics, and embedded audio broadcasts accessible in the chapters through QR codes, the novel blends story and soundtrack as Quinn pushes deeper into enemy territory to uncover what the Machines want with the children—and how far he’s willing to go to stop them.
Join Patreon at this link to watch it all unfold! https://www.patreon.com/ellispaul
CUSTOM SONGS, PRIVATE EVENTS, COACHING!
One of the many things that I do to earn a living is to write and record custom songs for people: I write songs to commemorate anniversaries, birthdays, memorials, etc. Check out the link below for more information.
Hire me to perform for your private event or in your home!
Want to write songs? Improve? Be more creative? Sit with me over zoom for one on ones! Check out the lin below for more information.
UPCOMING SHOWS!
For the next several weeks I am mostly in the Northeast— hope you will join me, and catch the NYE shows online if you can at clubpassim.org! See a complete list of tour dates below and visit www.ellispaul.com/calendar for more details and ticket information.
Ellis
Friday, December 5, Westport, MA
Saturday, December 6, Franklin, MA
Sunday, December 7, Portsmouth, NH
Friday, December 19, Saratoga Springs, NY
Saturday, December 20, Egremont, MA
Sunday, December 21, Piermont, NY
Mon-Wed, December 29-31, Cambridge, MA (4 New Year's Eve shows!)
Saturday, January 3, Beacon, NY
Sunday, January 4, Kennett Square, PA
Thursday-Sunday, January 16-19, Florida
Friday, January 23, Old Saybrook, CT
Saturday, January 24, Bristol, RI
Sunday, January 25, Maynard, MA
Wednesday, January 28, Fish Creek, WI
Friday, January 30, Arlington Heights (Chicago area), IL
Saturday, January 31, Hinsdale, IL
Sunday, February 1, Ft. Atkinson, WI
Saturday, February 7, Lewes, DE
Friday, February 20, Natick, MA
Saturday, February 21, Bedford, MA
Sunday, February 22, Portland, ME
Thursday, March 5, Monkton, MD
Friday, March 6, New Haven, CT
Saturday, March 7, Willington, CT
Thursday-Sunday, March 26-29, Opelika, AL
Sunday, March 29, Duluth, GA
Thursday, April 16, Madison, WI
Friday, April 17, Wausau, WI
Friday, April 24, Beverly, MA
Saturday, April 25, Boothbay Harbor, ME
Friday, May 8, Millis, MA
Saturday, May 9, Norwood, MA
Sunday, June 12, Shirley, MA