Ellsworth – Bright Red Road

Webpage: www.ellsworthsongs.com
Location: Brooklyn, NY, United States
Description: Guitar, piano, accordion, saxophone, cello, fiddle & harmonica are the various vehicles for the always bewitching lyrics. The first song will coax you through the door. After that it’s a wild hayride through a present-day Americana terrain.
Biography: Bright Red Road is the second solo project by Brooklyn based indie artist, Ellsworth. It’s a bit less edgy than his first album, American Compost. Here he seems to tip his hat to the past with an air of acceptance and a need to move on. It’s a tuneful testament to that point in time when you turn away, not with resignation or regret, but with closure. The first song will coax you in the door. After that it’s a wild hayride down the potholed terrain of present-day Americana. Guitar, piano, accordion, saxophone, cello, fiddle & harmonica are the various vehicles for the always-bewitching lyrics. The songs are strong, unique, joyous, petulant, unruly, frustrating, like a bunch of schoolyard kids in late summer. The singer’s moods follow suit. The album holds together by attitude, not design – and gets better with each listen.
Besides songwriting and performing, Ellsworth began producing music shows around the New York and New England area. His summertime Sunset Music Series on “the Barge” in Brooklyn’s Red Hook became one of the coolest, sought after gigs in NYC. He also produces the Bull Run Concert Series at the Bull Run Restaurant in Massachusetts where he brings in “All the great performers I admired growing up.” This gave him the opportunity to meet and share the stage with some giants like Leon Russell, Levon Helm, Graham Parker, Maria Muldaur and Johnny Winter.
Some of Ellsworth’s original songs have been featured on radio, internet and feature films. “The Moon is a Faithless Lover” was in Ghetto Dawg with Drena DeNiro and Gianna Palminteri. And “The Things I Gotta Do to Stay Alive – Are Killing Me” was in The Clinic, an independent film that won Best Screenplay in the NYII Film Festival. His song “Up Above the World” was picked for the 2004 UMO Music: The 14 Best Singer/Songwriters of Greenwich Village compilation CD. And “Every Time She Thinks About Marie” won Honorable Mention in the 2009 Billboard World Song Contest.

Some reviews of 1st album (American Compost) by Ellsworth“…telling tales in the vein of Springsteen and Mellencamp, utilizing a truly splendid turn of phrase to vividly bring his songs to life. This has the added bonus of opening up new lyrical nuances with repeated plays especially on the title track ‘American Compost’, the intimate ‘Every Time She Thinks About Marie’ and the pleading ‘Can Anyone Hear Me’.” – Stuart A Hamilton, Zeitgeist.com

“A great CD like this is comprised of great songs, great singing and great playing. Often, it also makes us think, or follows a theme. This is an album in the way albums used to be. For maximum effect it should be listened to all the way through in a single setting! You won’t be disappointed.” – Don Zelazny, Americana.com

“Rootsy Rock n roll that combines classic blues stylings and country traditions with timeless songwriting and sharp ideas (both thematically and musically). Not sure why an artist of this quality has to self-release CDs, but I guess that’s where ‘the industry’ is at these days.” – Flamin’ Waymon Timbsdayle, Roctober Magazine

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