Ellen McIlwaine
Encyclopedia
Ellen McIlwaine is an American
singer-songwriter
and musician
best known for her career as a slide guitar
ist.
, Japan
, giving her exposure to multiple languages and cultures. She attended the Canadian Academy
school in Kobe, graduating in 1963. Her first experience in music was playing Ray Charles
, Fats Domino
and Professor Longhair
songs on piano that she heard on Japanese radio. On moving to back to the United States
she bought a guitar, beginning a stage career in Atlanta, Georgia
in the mid-1960s.
In 1966, she had a stint in New York City
's Greenwich Village
where she opened every night at the Cafe Au Go Go
, playing with a young Jimi Hendrix
, and opening for Muddy Waters
, Sonny Terry
and Brownie McGhee
, and Big Joe Williams
. She returned to Atlanta to form the band Fear Itself
, a psychedelic
blues-rock
band.
After recording one album
with Fear Itself, McIlwaine went solo, recording two albums for Polydor
, Honky Tonk Angel (1972) and We the People (1973), the latter featuring a hit single
, "I Don't Want to Play". Those albums, and most of her work since, have featured McIlwaine's approach to acoustic slide guitar.
McIlwaine's career has been irregular, plagued by what she has often described of conflict with her record producer
s who wanted to change her sound. She once remarked of the 1978 album Ellen McIlwaine, "It could have been any other female vocalist, and next time it will be."
As a female vocalist who is known more for her acoustic guitar, her music tends to be classified in the folk sections of record stores, despite her strong roots in blues, soul and rock music, and her cover version
s of songs by Isaac Hayes
, Stevie Wonder
and Browning Bryant
. She has also recorded several covers of songs by Jimi Hendrix
: she wrote "Underground River" about him.
By the mid-1970s McIlwaine's songs "Sliding", "We the People" and "Losing You" were included on the compilation album
, The Guitar Album
.
McIlwaine's album The Real Ellen McIlwaine, recorded in Montreal
in 1975 for the Kotai label, won the NAIRD Indie Award. A 1982 project, Everybody Needs It, was also successful, and featured Jack Bruce
, an artist who influenced her strongly and whose songs she has covered on several of her albums.
In 1980 she made her first tour of Australia
, after being spotted by the Australian singer-guitarist Margret RoadKnight
, who was one of the co-promoters of the tour. She returned to Australia in 1984, and during this tour was the last performer to appear at Sydney's Regent Theatre
.
Since moving to Canada
in 1987, (first Toronto
, later Alberta
), McIlwaine recorded Looking for Trouble for Stony Plain Records
, which has also re-released her early vinyl material on CD. Her next CD Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine, recorded live in Germany
in 1999; and then Spontaneous Combustion
featuring Taj Mahal
are on the German Tradition und Moderne label.
In spite of debilitating arthritis
in her hips, she undertook a third tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2003, which reunited her with RoadKnight and the other Honky Tonk Angels, who had first brought her to Australia in 1980. McIlwaine has since successfully undergone hip replacement surgery.
She has long favored Guild
brand guitars. She plays Guild S-250 and S-300D electric guitars; in earlier years, even when performing solo, she often played her electric guitar through an octave multiplier to emulate a bass player.
Her acoustic guitar is a venerable and well-traveled Guild instrument, purchased for her in New York by a friend in 1966. This guitar has a unique history, being a former Guild company "loaner" which was used by leading artists including Mississippi John Hurt
and Richie Havens
while Guild repaired their own guitars.
In 2006 she started her own label Ellen McIlwaine Music and released Mystic Bridge featuring the Indian tabla
drummer Cassius Khan
. They were joined by the soprano saxophone of Linsey Wellman on three tracks, including their version of "Take Me to the River", and harmonium playing by Amika Kushwaha on the last track, "The Question". This was a poem by Christine Steele, recited over Cassius Khan's vocal rendition of the ancient Urdu poem set to music, "Darbari Raag".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
best known for her career as a slide guitar
Slide guitar
Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles...
ist.
Biography
Born in Nashville, McIlwaine was adopted by missionaries and raised in KobeKobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, giving her exposure to multiple languages and cultures. She attended the Canadian Academy
Canadian Academy
Canadian Academy , founded in 1913, is an independent pre-K–12 international school in Kobe, Japan on the man-made Rokko Island; more than 35 nationalities are represented in its student body. Prior to its move to Rokko Island, the school was located in Nagamine-dai, a residential area...
school in Kobe, graduating in 1963. Her first experience in music was playing Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
and Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist...
songs on piano that she heard on Japanese radio. On moving to back to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
she bought a guitar, beginning a stage career in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
in the mid-1960s.
In 1966, she had a stint in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
where she opened every night at the Cafe Au Go Go
Cafe Au Go Go
The Cafe au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of 152 Bleecker Street. The club featured many well known musical groups, folksingers and comedy acts between the opening in February 1964 until closing in October 1969. Originally owned by Howard Solomon who sold the club...
, playing with a young Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, and opening for Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
, Sonny Terry
Sonny Terry
Saunders Terrell, better known as Sonny Terry was a blind American Piedmont blues musician. He was widely known for his energetic blues harmonica style, which frequently included vocal whoops and hollers, and imitations of trains and fox hunts.-Career:Terry was born in Greensboro, Georgia...
and Brownie McGhee
Brownie McGhee
Walter Brown McGhee was a Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaborations with the harmonica player Sonny Terry.-Life and career:...
, and Big Joe Williams
Big Joe Williams
Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...
. She returned to Atlanta to form the band Fear Itself
Fear Itself (band)
Fear Itself was a short-lived psychedelic blues-rock band formed by Ellen McIlwaine in the late 1960s in Atlanta, Georgia. The band featured McIlwaine singing lead vocals as well as performing harp, rhythm guitar and organ. Chris Zaloom performed lead guitar, Steve Cook played bass guitar, and Bill...
, a psychedelic
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
blues-rock
Blues-rock
Blues rock is a hybrid musical genre combining bluesy improvisations over the 12-bar blues and extended boogie jams with rock and roll styles. The core of the blues rock sound is created by the electric guitar, piano, bass guitar and drum kit, with the electric guitar usually amplified through a...
band.
After recording one album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
with Fear Itself, McIlwaine went solo, recording two albums for Polydor
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
, Honky Tonk Angel (1972) and We the People (1973), the latter featuring a hit single
Hit single
A hit single is a recorded song or instrumental released as a single that has become very popular. Although it is sometimes used to describe any widely-played or big-selling song, the term "hit" is usually reserved for a single that has appeared in an official music chart through repeated radio...
, "I Don't Want to Play". Those albums, and most of her work since, have featured McIlwaine's approach to acoustic slide guitar.
McIlwaine's career has been irregular, plagued by what she has often described of conflict with her record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
s who wanted to change her sound. She once remarked of the 1978 album Ellen McIlwaine, "It could have been any other female vocalist, and next time it will be."
As a female vocalist who is known more for her acoustic guitar, her music tends to be classified in the folk sections of record stores, despite her strong roots in blues, soul and rock music, and her cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of songs by Isaac Hayes
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
, Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
and Browning Bryant
Browning Bryant
John Baxter Browning Bryant is an American singer-songwriter, whose greatest commercial popularity was before and during his early teens....
. She has also recorded several covers of songs by Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
: she wrote "Underground River" about him.
By the mid-1970s McIlwaine's songs "Sliding", "We the People" and "Losing You" were included on the compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, The Guitar Album
The Guitar Album
The Guitar Album is a 1974 double compilation album featuring live performances of popular guitarists. It features eighteen tracks from artists Eric Clapton, Roy Buchanan, Rory Gallagher, T-Bone Walker, Ellen McIlwaine, Link Wray, Stone the Crows, John McLaughlin and Area Code 615. The album was...
.
McIlwaine's album The Real Ellen McIlwaine, recorded in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
in 1975 for the Kotai label, won the NAIRD Indie Award. A 1982 project, Everybody Needs It, was also successful, and featured Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
, an artist who influenced her strongly and whose songs she has covered on several of her albums.
In 1980 she made her first tour of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, after being spotted by the Australian singer-guitarist Margret RoadKnight
Margret RoadKnight
Margret RoadKnight is an Australian singer. In a career spanning more than four decades, she has sung in a wide variety of styles including blues, jazz, gospel, and folk....
, who was one of the co-promoters of the tour. She returned to Australia in 1984, and during this tour was the last performer to appear at Sydney's Regent Theatre
Regent Theatre (Sydney)
The Regent Theatre was a heritage-listed theatre in Sydney, Australia, which was demolished in 1988.-Description and history:The Regent Theatre was Hoyts' showcase "picture palace" in Sydney, designed by the distinguished architect Cedric Ballantyne and built by James Porter & Sons.Located at...
.
Since moving to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1987, (first Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, later Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
), McIlwaine recorded Looking for Trouble for Stony Plain Records
Stony Plain Records
Stony Plain Records is a major Canadian independent record label, which specializes in roots music genres such as country, folk and blues. The label was the recipient of a 2003 Western Canadian Music Award for "Independent Record Label/Distributor of the Year"....
, which has also re-released her early vinyl material on CD. Her next CD Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine, recorded live in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1999; and then Spontaneous Combustion
Spontaneous Combustion (album)
Spontaneous Combustion is an album by Progressive metal/Fusion group Liquid Trio Experiment, and is the result of the studio improvisations of Liquid Tension Experiment which occurred while John Petrucci was with his wife while she was giving birth. The trio of Mike Portnoy, Tony Levin and Jordan...
featuring Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
are on the German Tradition und Moderne label.
In spite of debilitating arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
in her hips, she undertook a third tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2003, which reunited her with RoadKnight and the other Honky Tonk Angels, who had first brought her to Australia in 1980. McIlwaine has since successfully undergone hip replacement surgery.
She has long favored Guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
brand guitars. She plays Guild S-250 and S-300D electric guitars; in earlier years, even when performing solo, she often played her electric guitar through an octave multiplier to emulate a bass player.
Her acoustic guitar is a venerable and well-traveled Guild instrument, purchased for her in New York by a friend in 1966. This guitar has a unique history, being a former Guild company "loaner" which was used by leading artists including Mississippi John Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt was an American country blues singer and guitarist.Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself how to play the guitar around age nine...
and Richie Havens
Richie Havens
Richard P. "Richie" Havens is an African American folk singer and guitarist. He is best known for his intense, rhythmic guitar style , soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.-Career:Born in Brooklyn, Havens was the eldest of nine children...
while Guild repaired their own guitars.
In 2006 she started her own label Ellen McIlwaine Music and released Mystic Bridge featuring the Indian tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
drummer Cassius Khan
Cassius Khan
Cassius Khan , is an Indian classical musician known for playing the tabla and Ghazal while singing.- Career :In Vancouver, Khan met Mushtari Begum, a Ghazal singer, Sheikh Mohyudean, a harmonium / Qawaali singer, and Ustad Rukhsar Ali, a tabla player. He subsequently began lessons with these...
. They were joined by the soprano saxophone of Linsey Wellman on three tracks, including their version of "Take Me to the River", and harmonium playing by Amika Kushwaha on the last track, "The Question". This was a poem by Christine Steele, recited over Cassius Khan's vocal rendition of the ancient Urdu poem set to music, "Darbari Raag".
As principal artist
- Fear Itself (1969, with Fear ItselfFear Itself (band)Fear Itself was a short-lived psychedelic blues-rock band formed by Ellen McIlwaine in the late 1960s in Atlanta, Georgia. The band featured McIlwaine singing lead vocals as well as performing harp, rhythm guitar and organ. Chris Zaloom performed lead guitar, Steve Cook played bass guitar, and Bill...
) - Honky Tonk AngelHonky Tonk Angel (Ellen McIlwaine album)Honky Tonk Angel is the 1972 debut solo album by Ellen McIlwaine, following her departure from Fear Itself. The first side of the album contains songs that were recorded live at The Bitter End in New York City while side two of the record is made up of studio recordings.The album was re-released on...
(1972) - We the PeopleWe the People (Ellen McIlwaine album)We the People is a 1973 album by Ellen McIlwaine.The album was re-released on CD in 1993 along with McIlwaine's 1972 debut album Honky Tonk Angel as Up From the Skies: The Polydor Years.-Side A:#"Ain't No Two Ways About It " – 4:26...
(1973) - The Real Ellen McIlwaine (1975)
- Ellen McIlwaine (1978)
- Everybody Needs It (1982)
- Looking For Trouble (1987)
- Up From the Skies: The Polydor YearsUp from the Skies: The Polydor YearsUp From the Skies: The Polydor Years is a 1998 compilation album featuring the music of Ellen McIlwaine during her 1972-1973 recording years with Polydor Records...
(1998, compilation) - Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine (1999)
- Spontaneous CombustionSpontaneous Combustion (album)Spontaneous Combustion is an album by Progressive metal/Fusion group Liquid Trio Experiment, and is the result of the studio improvisations of Liquid Tension Experiment which occurred while John Petrucci was with his wife while she was giving birth. The trio of Mike Portnoy, Tony Levin and Jordan...
(2001) - Live at Yellow (2002, Japanese release)
- Mystic Bridge (2006, with Cassius KhanCassius KhanCassius Khan , is an Indian classical musician known for playing the tabla and Ghazal while singing.- Career :In Vancouver, Khan met Mushtari Begum, a Ghazal singer, Sheikh Mohyudean, a harmonium / Qawaali singer, and Ustad Rukhsar Ali, a tabla player. He subsequently began lessons with these...
)
Compilation inclusions
- Saturday Night Blues: 20 YearsSaturday Night Blues: 20 YearsSaturday Night Blues: 20 Years is a 2006 2 CD compilation album, released by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and, internationally, by the Universal Music Group, of live performances of Canadian blues artists, as featured on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio program Saturday Night...
(2006, CBCCanadian Broadcasting CorporationThe Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
)