The Shadow
Southern Blues and Rock Star, Tinsley Ellis to Perform at Historic Masonic Theatre
On Wednesday, February 9, at 7:30 PM, Southern blues-rock guitar wizard, vocalist and songwriter, Tinsley Ellis will perform on The Historic Masonic Theatre stage.
The Chicago Sun-Times says, “It’s hard to overstate the raw power of his music.” Armed with his signature molten licks, melodic riffs, and rousing, intense solos, Ellis, as his legions of fans will attest, is among the blues world’s best-loved, hardest working, and most well-traveled statesmen. He has performed in all 50 States as well as in Canada, Western, and Eastern Europe, Australia, and South America, earning loyal fans with his guitar virtuosity, passionate vocals, and memorable original songs. Ellis is also revered as a guitarist’s guitarist, with famous friends including Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Oliver Wood, Jonny Lang, and members of Widespread Panic calling on him to sit in and jam. “A musician never got famous staying home,” he says.
Born in Atlanta in 1957, Ellis was raised in southern Florida. He discovered the blues through the back door of British Invasion bands like The Yardbirds, The Animals, Cream, and The Rolling Stones as well as Southern rockers like The Allman Brothers. Already an accomplished teenaged musician, Ellis left Florida and returned to Atlanta in 1975. He soon joined a gritty local blues band, the Alley Cats. In 1981, along with veteran blues singer and harpist, Chicago Bob Nelson, Tinsley formed The Heartfixers, a group that would become Atlanta’s top-drawing blues band. After cutting a few Heartfixers albums for the Landslide label, Ellis was ready to head out on his own.
Over the course of his career, Ellis has shared stages with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Otis Rush, Willie Dixon, The Allman Brothers, Leon Russell, Son Seals, Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, and many others. Whether he’s on stage with his own band or jamming with artists like Buddy Guy, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gov’t Mule, or Widespread Panic, he always plays with grit, soul, and unbridled passion.
Rolling Stone says, “Feral blues guitar…non-stop gigging has sharpened his six-string to a razor’s edge…his eloquence dazzles…he achieves pyrotechnics that rival early Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.”
Read more about Tinsley Ellis at www.historicmasonictheatre.com
Tickets may be purchased online on the website or in person at the Theatre’s Box Office or by calling the Box Office at 540 862 5655. Tickets will also be available at the Box Office the evening of the performance.
To learn more about the events at The Historic Masonic Theatre, please visit the website or the Theatre Facebook page.
