ROBERT ELLIS
''THE LIGHTS FROM THE CHEMICAL PLANT''
2014
53:59
1 /TV Song/4:46
2 /Chemical Plant/4:29
3 /Good Intentions/2:47
4 /Steady as the Rising Sun
Robert Ellis / Taylor Goldsmith/4:09
5 /Bottle of Wine/6:31
6 /Still Crazy After All These Years
Paul Simon/3:51
7 /Pride/5:00
8 /Only Lies/3:50
9 /Houston/7:12
10 /Sing Along/4:09
11 /Tour Song/7:15
Tracks By Ellis, Except As Indicated
Stevie Blacke /Arranger, Strings
Josh Block /Drums, Percussion
Robbie Crowell /Saxophone, Soloist
Kelly Doyle /Guitar (Electric)
Robert Ellis /Arranger, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Griffin Goldsmith /Vocals (Background)
Taylor Goldsmith /Vocals (Background)
Jacquire King /Arranger
Jim Lauderdale /Vocals (Background)
Geoffrey Muller /Bass (Electric)
Will Van Horn /Banjo, Pedal Steel
Skylar Wilson /Piano
Review
by Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
Since New West released Photographs in 2011, Robert Ellis' reputation has spread internationally. These days he plays European festivals as well as Texas honky tonks. He moved to Nashville from Houston in 2012. Given the growth in his songwriting on The Lights from the Chemical Plant, it was the right choice. The album is exquisitely produced and mixed by Jacquire King; it's refined, not slick. He illustrates Ellis' elusive, emotionally evocative songs, expanding their sonic reach to blur genre boundaries. Though he and Ellis embraces the sounds of Nashville's and Americana's pasts, they look forward, making use of rock and pop wherever it makes sense. "TV Song" is be a novelty tune, but it recalls the savvy of of Roger Miller and Tom T. Hall. "Chemical Plant" narrates a story of young lovers who cling together as life changes around them and years pass; but there is no escaping death. Electric guitars, tom-toms, and strings elevate the song to near cinematic proportions, but never indulges them. The melody in "Steady as the Rising Sun" suggests Harlan Howard. A tender yet almost melancholy love song, the rhythm section's syncopated backbeat on the coda introduces a whining pedal steel, sweeping strings and a backing chorus by Dawes' Goldsmith Brothers. "Bottle of Wine" paraphrases Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." Fueled by a reverbed, slightly out of tune piano, the protagonist sings to an absent other in an empty room, accompanied only his beverage and a bag of cocaine. Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" is poignantly and darkly rendered with a killer guitar break. "Pride," "Only Lies," and "Houston" (the last with a knotty, screaming, extended prog rock outro!) make use of country and blues in the same way Danny O'Keefe did on his first two albums: tangentially, integral parts of a larger musical palette. (Ellis' voice also bears a spooky resemblance to O'Keefe's.) Narratively, these songs paint haunted silhouettes of emptiness, loneliness, and desolation. "Tour Song," the sparse acoustic closer, features is a traveling musician protagonist. He confesses paranoia and fear speculating about possible infidelity from his wife while he's away. He's ultimately resigned to it as the cost of his chosen profession, butdeals with it by way of nightly oblivion. The Lights from the Chemical Plant is an inspired, mercurial record, by an artist who cares deeply for tradition, but refuses to be bound by it.
Biography
by Andrew Leahey (AllMusic)
Before signing with New West Records in early 2011, country songwriter Robert Ellis made a name for himself in Houston, Texas. Inspired by the country, folk, and bluegrass records he’d heard while growing up in southern Texas, Ellis began playing shows around the city, eventually landing a Wednesday night residency at a local venue called Fitzgerald’s. His audience grew as a result of those weekly shows, nicknamed "Whiskey Wednesdays" for their rowdy nature and half-drunk clientele, and Ellis earned more fans on the strength of his self-released debut, The Great Rearranger. One of those converted fans was George Fontaine, Sr., president of New West Records, who signed Ellis in 2011. Photographs was released that summer, mixing acoustic folk songs with uptempo country numbers. The album was selected by American Songwriter as one of its Top 50 albums for that calendar year. Ellis toured the United States and Europe before relocating to Nashville. His more eclectic sophomore album, The Lights from the Chemical Plant, was recorded there and produced by Jacquire King; it was issued in February of 2014.
OFFICIAL SITE
''THE LIGHTS FROM THE CHEMICAL PLANT''
2014
53:59
1 /TV Song/4:46
2 /Chemical Plant/4:29
3 /Good Intentions/2:47
4 /Steady as the Rising Sun
Robert Ellis / Taylor Goldsmith/4:09
5 /Bottle of Wine/6:31
6 /Still Crazy After All These Years
Paul Simon/3:51
7 /Pride/5:00
8 /Only Lies/3:50
9 /Houston/7:12
10 /Sing Along/4:09
11 /Tour Song/7:15
Tracks By Ellis, Except As Indicated
Stevie Blacke /Arranger, Strings
Josh Block /Drums, Percussion
Robbie Crowell /Saxophone, Soloist
Kelly Doyle /Guitar (Electric)
Robert Ellis /Arranger, Guitar, Keyboards, Piano, Vocals
Griffin Goldsmith /Vocals (Background)
Taylor Goldsmith /Vocals (Background)
Jacquire King /Arranger
Jim Lauderdale /Vocals (Background)
Geoffrey Muller /Bass (Electric)
Will Van Horn /Banjo, Pedal Steel
Skylar Wilson /Piano
Review
by Thom Jurek (AllMusic)
Since New West released Photographs in 2011, Robert Ellis' reputation has spread internationally. These days he plays European festivals as well as Texas honky tonks. He moved to Nashville from Houston in 2012. Given the growth in his songwriting on The Lights from the Chemical Plant, it was the right choice. The album is exquisitely produced and mixed by Jacquire King; it's refined, not slick. He illustrates Ellis' elusive, emotionally evocative songs, expanding their sonic reach to blur genre boundaries. Though he and Ellis embraces the sounds of Nashville's and Americana's pasts, they look forward, making use of rock and pop wherever it makes sense. "TV Song" is be a novelty tune, but it recalls the savvy of of Roger Miller and Tom T. Hall. "Chemical Plant" narrates a story of young lovers who cling together as life changes around them and years pass; but there is no escaping death. Electric guitars, tom-toms, and strings elevate the song to near cinematic proportions, but never indulges them. The melody in "Steady as the Rising Sun" suggests Harlan Howard. A tender yet almost melancholy love song, the rhythm section's syncopated backbeat on the coda introduces a whining pedal steel, sweeping strings and a backing chorus by Dawes' Goldsmith Brothers. "Bottle of Wine" paraphrases Billy Joel's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." Fueled by a reverbed, slightly out of tune piano, the protagonist sings to an absent other in an empty room, accompanied only his beverage and a bag of cocaine. Paul Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years" is poignantly and darkly rendered with a killer guitar break. "Pride," "Only Lies," and "Houston" (the last with a knotty, screaming, extended prog rock outro!) make use of country and blues in the same way Danny O'Keefe did on his first two albums: tangentially, integral parts of a larger musical palette. (Ellis' voice also bears a spooky resemblance to O'Keefe's.) Narratively, these songs paint haunted silhouettes of emptiness, loneliness, and desolation. "Tour Song," the sparse acoustic closer, features is a traveling musician protagonist. He confesses paranoia and fear speculating about possible infidelity from his wife while he's away. He's ultimately resigned to it as the cost of his chosen profession, butdeals with it by way of nightly oblivion. The Lights from the Chemical Plant is an inspired, mercurial record, by an artist who cares deeply for tradition, but refuses to be bound by it.
Biography
by Andrew Leahey (AllMusic)
Before signing with New West Records in early 2011, country songwriter Robert Ellis made a name for himself in Houston, Texas. Inspired by the country, folk, and bluegrass records he’d heard while growing up in southern Texas, Ellis began playing shows around the city, eventually landing a Wednesday night residency at a local venue called Fitzgerald’s. His audience grew as a result of those weekly shows, nicknamed "Whiskey Wednesdays" for their rowdy nature and half-drunk clientele, and Ellis earned more fans on the strength of his self-released debut, The Great Rearranger. One of those converted fans was George Fontaine, Sr., president of New West Records, who signed Ellis in 2011. Photographs was released that summer, mixing acoustic folk songs with uptempo country numbers. The album was selected by American Songwriter as one of its Top 50 albums for that calendar year. Ellis toured the United States and Europe before relocating to Nashville. His more eclectic sophomore album, The Lights from the Chemical Plant, was recorded there and produced by Jacquire King; it was issued in February of 2014.
OFFICIAL SITE
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