Robert Ellis gives the last of three singles before June 3 self-titled release
About 5 minutes after we posted this, NPR Music posted a First Listen for the full version of Robert Ellis. Take a listen here.
For us music-lovin’ Texans, it’s hard not to follow the singer-songwriter circle that seems to be blossoming once again in our great State. I came across this troubadour on my way to SXSW in 2014. A friend was raving about this album called Lights From The Chemical Plant (2014) that he had just discovered, and told me that I absolutely had to check it out. Since he was nice enough to drive to the shows we were about to see, I figured I’d humor him (although, he usually had good taste). I was so glad I did.
From the opening notes of “TV Song”, which tells the tale of a man living a mundane existence, who only escapes when he’s watching his favorite television shows, I was hooked.
“It takes no imagination, just the flick of the remote, then I am on vacation in a life someone else wrote.”
— “TV Song” from Lights From The Chemical Plant (2014)
This nasally-voiced artist writes songs that are real and often reflectively dark. I must have listened to Lights front to back at least a hundred times, listening to his tales about growing up in a small town near Houston, under “the lights from the chemical plant.” Immediately after my first listen, I shared it with Austin and told him he had to listen to the album as soon as possible. After that, we sat for two years, with the same album, eagerly anticipating a follow up.
Fast forward to Easter Weekend from 2016: I get a very early, excited text from Austin, which is sort of out of the ordinary for him:
“NEW ROBERT ELLIS!!!”
I think that’s verbatim, exclamations and all. Immediately, I was like a kid on Christmas. I opened Spotify at a record pace, and sure enough, there it was: the new single, “Drivin.’” The song has an eerily sweet, looping guitar pick progression; it definitely sounded like the twangy Robert Ellis that I had grown to know and love. The song’s narrative is something we can all relate to: having absolutely nothing to do, and driving around aimlessly.
This don’t feel like livin’, it’s just survivin’. I ain’t goin’ nowhere, I’m just drivin’.
— “Drivin’” from Robert Ellis’ upcoming self-titled album
He’s got this Willie Nelson quality to his voice and song structures, but I was wrong (or so I think) about Nelson being his central influence.
Ellis has released two singles off of his upcoming album since “Drivin.’” These two songs make me think that he’s a HUGE fan of Paul Simon. The instrumentation and sound are more diverse. “How I Love You” and “California” incorporate more electric instruments like keyboard or synthesizer. “California” reminds me of Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” (which Ellis ironically covers on Lights) in a major key, from Simon’s album of the same name (1975). You can feel his relational struggles and a growing maturity in his content. If you’re like me, these singles have only left me salivating for the new album.
I see Robert Ellis being the leader of a new generation of Texas singer-songwriters. He’s a guy who writes really honest, unapologetic music; it’s what music needs. We used to have a world where artists had integrity in their work like Ellis, I think it’s time we go back to that.
