As an individual performer, Ellis has developed a distinctive and personal
approach to the music, and
has played at festivals and clubs throughout the United States, in Canada and
in Europe. According
to one reviewer, “More than copying one artist or another, Ellis distills
the elements of the originals
and transmits them, intact, in her own expressive way.” She credits her
musical reach to such greats
as Memphis Minnie, Skip James and other early recording artists, as well as
to the influence of the
blues players she has personally known.
She has also worked to continue the legacy, to pass it on and teach it to others.
She is a founding member
of the DC Blues Society and the Archie Edwards Blues Heritage Foundation, which
won a 2005
Keeping the Blues Alive award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis. She has
documented the
music through written articles for magazines such as Blues Revue, Living Blues,
and Sing Out, and in
recent years has traveled through the South to visit and record various traditional
blues artists.
This CD is a sample of her musical journey so far, and a tribute to the blues
tradition that has taken her there.
– BARBARA BAMBERGER SCOTT