Americana/Roots Guitar Master William Lee Ellis Conjures Up 'Ghost Hymns', Out June 23

Yellow Dog Records announces a June 23rd release date for Ghost Hymns, the new album from tradition-bred songsmith and fleet fingerpicker William Lee Ellis. Ghost Hymns was co-produced by Ellis, River Hartley, and Larry Nager and recorded - as the pandemic allowed - over 18 months, July 2021-January 2023.

Ellis's trademark sound, a personalized mix of acoustic blues, folk, bluegrass, and world music, is on full display for Ghost Hymns, an album that veers effortlessly from gospel, shape note, and blues to old-time, ragtime, and high life on twelve original compositions and arrangements.

"It has been a few years since I last recorded for the incredibly special roots label, Yellow Dog Records," William Lee Ellis said. "During that time, I stepped into the world of academia and earned a PhD in ethnomusicology at the University of Memphis under famed blues scholar David Evans. No surprise, my dissertation was on the music of Rev. Gary Davis." He then left the Bluff City, his home of 15 years, for Vermont, where he is an Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Saint Michael's College.

"Conceived during Covid when the world had shut down - and away from the rooted sense of place that had long been Memphis for me - Ghost Hymns bears its own stamp of time and place thanks to the global virtuosi in Vermont and beyond I have come to know as friends. This album reflects those friendships, heard as musical conversations with a traveled reach and reverence for the voices of traditions past. This is the heart of traditional music and of the music I write, with one ear ever bent to the pre-WWII blues and gospel pioneers, the buskers and street players, the famous and obscure alike, whose riffs and rhymes bore witness to an often cruel and indifferent world and whose music personally remains a musical if not moral guide."

First and second takes were the norm with most everything cut live. Befitting the punk ethos of co-producer/engineer/mixer, River Hartley, sessions were recorded on the fly, from dorm rooms to recital halls, "doing our best to keep dogs, noisy heating ducts, and overhead fighter jets out of the final mix," laughs Ellis.

William Lee Ellis comes by his musical prowess naturally. His father, North Carolina native Tony Ellis, is a veteran of Bill Monroe's early-'60s Blue Grass Boys. Tony Ellis - the inaugural Ohio Heritage Fellowship recipient for performing arts in 2003 - is able to drive the five-string with the best of them, as he did on the acclaimed 1993 Masters of the Banjo tour and album produced by the National Council for Traditional Arts. Bill backed his father for decades on record and tours, and his father's influence can be heard throughout Ghost Hymns. "More than any of my previous albums, I hear the weight of my dad's musical imprint on my own, which is perhaps why I've chosen this album to finally play some banjo and arrange one of his most elegant fiddle tunes." The journey fittingly ends where it began: "It's a family trait, I guess. I may not share his bluegrass tenure, but I'd like to think I carry forward my father's gifts of tone and melodic craft and the ability to personalize tradition."

Ghost Hymns Track Listing and Credits

All tracks written by William Lee Ellis, except where noted

1. Cony Catch the Sun - WLE, vocal & fretless banjo
2. Flood Tale - WLE, vocal & 12-string guitar; Fraser Speirs, harmonica; Andy Cohen, dolceola; Steve Feinbloom, bass
3. Pearl River Blues - WLE, vocal & guitar; Mikahely, guitar
4. All for You (traditional, arr. WLE) - WLE, vocal & guitar; Koblavi Dogah, axatse, gankogui, clave & conga; Fernando Barriga, cigar box; Steve Feinbloom, bass
5. Earth and Winding Sheet (written by WLE; string arr. Matt LaRocca) - WLE, guitar; Brooke Quiggins and Ben Lively, violins; Matt LaRocca, viola; John Dunlop, cello
6. Call on Me (An Eidolon Air) (written by WLE & Julie Coffey) - WLE, vocal & guitar; Pete Sutherland, fiddle; Julie Coffey, vocal
7. Lost Heaven (written by WLE and Larry Nager) - WLE, yueqin & guitar
8. Mumblin' Word (trad., arr. WLE) - WLE, vocal & 12-string guitar; Neil Rossi, fiddle; Rik Palieri, banjo; Larry Nager, bass and washboard; Neil, Rik, & Julie Coffey, vocals
9. Goat Island - WLE, guitar; Koblavi Dogah, axatse & conga
10. River of Need - WLE, vocal, six and 12-string guitars, EBows, aslatua
11. Belarus (written by Tony Ellis; arr. WLE) - WLE, guitar; Tom Cleary, piano
12. Bury Me in the Sky (written by WLE, Kim Richardson, Mary Unobsky & Willie Pevear) / I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore (trad, arr. WLE & Hannah Assefa) - WLE, vocal & guitar; KeruBo, vocal; Hannah Assefa, fiddle; Larry Nager, bass

To post a comment, you must register and login.