ELLIS PAUL // Folk singer coming to The Wire
Barry Fox
* 03/12/99
The Harrisburg Patriot
(Copyright 1999)
Like the athlete he once was, folk-star-on-the-rise Ellis Paul
feels like he is finally in `the zone.`
For the last seven years the Boston-based singer-songwriter has
been immersed in playing live, learning the guitar and honing his
stage presence. His once-sharp edges are smoothing out and he's
getting a firm grasp on his music.
`I'm an adult now and I can tap into that,` the 32-year-old said.
`Now I know what makes a story interesting and I know what kind of
songs I want to write.`
And, the success of four albums, 200-plus shows a year, seven
Boston Music Awards and a prestigious Kerrville New Folk Award has
bred financial security and the ability to navigate his own career
course.
`I'm ecstatic,` Paul said from his rarely visited apartment. `I
can back off and get the breathing room I haven't had for the last
seven years.`
Now, even with the critical and popular success of last year's
`Translucent Soul` disc, Paul said he wants to focus on his writing
and recording skills.
Given the pile of good words for his current album, that will not
be an easy task.
`Translucent Soul's` deeply personal 11 songs examine topics
ranging from Paul's recent divorce to racism to romance in a
beautifully written, powerfully sung package that has been acclaimed
by the CMJ New Music Report as `very special.` The Newhouse News
Service called it `one of the very best, if not the best, folk albums
of 1998.`
`I'm really happy where we're at with it,` Paul said of the album.
`You plan and you hope but someone once told me, 'You pray to God,
but you still keep rowing toward shore.' That's where I am with my
career.`
Addressing an intimate subject such as the demise of his marriage
in such a public way throws open the doors to his personal life
`which is a drag in a way,` he said. `But I'm the one to blame for
it. I knew people who've been through the big break-up, divorce
thing would relate to the album.`
And, as it is for many artists, writing about the divorce was a
catharsis.
`I could feel it physically taking care of me,` Paul said.
The arts have always been a creative outlet for Paul who was one
of those kids who won all the writing awards in high school. `As a
kid I just loved art and writing,` he said. `When I got older I knew
I wanted to work for myself and be creative.`
But he was also a talented runner who earned a track scholarship
to Boston College, putting his artistic pursuits on hold. `I was an
athlete to please myself, and my father,` he said.
An injury forced him to sit down, and to pick up the guitar.
Writing came naturally `but the real challenge was putting guitar
chords together and playing guitar,` said Paul, who has never taken a
lesson.
He started playing the fertile Boston folk scene, perhaps the
country's best, listening to and learning from Shawn Colvin, John
Gorka, Susan Werner, Dar Williams, Bill Morrissey and Patty Larkin,
who are among the dozens of folkies who are from or have adopted
Beantown as home.
`Boston is a real cradle for songwriters and poetry,` Paul said.
`I don't know why the rest of the country doesn't have a scene like
* we do. The big thing is radio puts folk {music} on and there is a
weird synergy between radio, clubs and the music.`
* And in the best tradition of folk music, and his guru Woody
Guthrie, Paul takes to the road to see America up close and fill his
journals with anecdotes and sketches of the personalities he meets
and experiences collected.
`I write what I want and get out in my car and play,` he said.
`It's such a joy and I'm thankful for it everyday. I meet people,
listen to the stories that touch them, and they touch me.`
