Tinsley Ellis

Labor of Love

Alligator Records

Tinsley Ellis has steadily sharpened his own identifiable, rocking brand of southern blues for the last half century. Blistering guitar, throaty, soulful singing, and catchy songs, were the hallmarks that made him an international star. Ellis occasionally altered his focus, cutting an album of southern soul, an all-instrumental set inspired by his guitar heroes, and a Georgia roots and Allman Brothers appreciation recording. But those and others still rocked the blues in his matchless style.

When Covid hit, Ellis hunkered down, re-explored his inspirations, and re-connected with his 1937 National Steel and the treasured ’69 Martin acoustic that his dad gifted him when he was a boy. He rang in 2024 with the critically acclaimed Naked Truth, his first all-acoustic album of blues and folk tunes. He hit the road, traversing America by car, and regaled capacity crowds with his two guitars and a voice full of riveting songs and engaging yarns. He has been out there almost consistently ever since.

Labor of Love, his second acoustic album, shares similarities with Naked Truth, but Ellis places the emphasis more squarely on the blues this time. He wrote all 13 songs shortly after visiting Bentonia, Mississippi and playing with blues legend Jimmy “Duck” Holmes at his renowned juke, the Blue Front Café. The results resonate with various delta-style blues. Some twists do crop up, given that Ellis’s musical interests run far and wide.

The album kicks off on the hypnotic, R.L. Burnside-inspired “Hoodoo Woman,” the blues imagery of it played out in an accompanying video of Ellis perched on a chair in the backwoods hill country, ostensibly stomping out demons. He then lightens up a John Lee Hooker-styled groove and applies it to the restless “Long Time,” examining conflicts that never seem to end. “Sad Sad Song,” which could have fit snugly on Naked Truth, is one of three that features Ellis deftly picking a mandolin for the first time on record. The song also displays his ingenious way of pulling together inspirations outside of the blues, to create blues. Within a Celtic-styled melody that recalls Led Zeppelin’s acoustic side, Ellis inserts a line—consciously or not—from a Doobie Brothers song as he sings of a woman who lost her home and her family.

“Sunnyland” beats with Son House-styled purpose about returning to the warm, welcoming climes of the south, while in the chilling “I’d Rather Be Saved,” Ellis spins a tale of favoring death and the Lord over the darkness and pain of abuse. Every impassioned aspect about Tinsley Ellis, from his songwriting to his exquisite vocal and dazzling guitar performances, are exemplified in those two authentic as they come blues. In the latter, Ellis employs the haunting Bentonia guitar tuning that Skip James pioneered. “Duck” Holmes tutored Ellis in it, and it is among the six open tunings that he plays throughout the album to striking effect.

Tinsley Ellis possesses the rare ability to capture music for everyone. A casual listener unfamiliar with blues must appreciate the beauty in these songs. If he never again feels the electric itch to rip on a Strat, he proves here, once again, that there are endless possibilities of expression at his disposal using just his heart, his voice, his Steel, and his acoustics. The title Labor of Love points to a prime future that Tinsley Ellis has already settled wonderfully into.

Tom Clarke for MAS

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