Tinsley Ellis and Sonny Landreth
October 8 , 2010 at 7:30pm
Bama Theatre
Sponsored by Hampton Inn

$26 general admission
Visit www.brownpapertickets.com/event/122487 for tickets
www.tinsleyellis.com
www.sonnylandreth.com/
Call 205-758-5195 for further information.

Tinsley Ellis
H ard-rocking blues-soaked guitarist/vocalist/song-writer Tinsley Ellis sings and plays with the energy and soul of all the great Southern musicians who have come before him. Ellis attacks his music with rock power and blues feeling, following in the tradition of his Deep South musical heroes Duane Allman, Freddie King, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. His live shows feature extended fretwork filled with melodic and rhythmic experimentation in the spirit of jam bands like his friends Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers. Atlanta Magazine declared Ellis "the most significant blues artist to emerge from Atlanta since Blind Willie McTell."

Since first hitting the national scene with his Alligator Records debut, Georgia Blue in 1988, Ellis has toured non-stop and continued to release one critically acclaimed album after another. His stellar guitar work, always a staple of his live shows and CDs, is matched by his strong songwriting and powerful, soulful vocals. Tinsley's hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal Constitution , calls his music, "a potent, amazing trip through electric blues-rock."

Ellis has played in all 50 states, as well as Canada, Europe, Australia and South America. Whether he's out with his own band or sharing stages with The Allman Brothers, Robert Cray, Koko Taylor or Widespread Panic, he averages over 150 performances a year, bringing his fast-moving, high-energy, guitar-drenched performances to fans all over the world. He is recorded on the Alligator Records label.


Sonny Landreth
Southwest Louisiana-based guitarist, songwriter and singer Sonny Landreth is a musician's musician. The blues slide guitar playing found on his two Zoo Entertainment releases, Outward Bound (1992) and South of I-10 (1995), is unlike any found on previous recordings. His unorthodox guitar style comes from the manner in which he simultaneously plays slide and moves his fingers across the fret board. Landreth, like any good session musician, is an incredibly versatile player. His distinctive performing can be heard on recordings by John Hiatt, Leslie West and Mountain and other rock & rollers.

Landreth's earliest inspiration came from Scotty Moore, the guitarist from Elvis Presley's band, but as time went on, he learned from the recordings of musicians and groups like Chet Atkins and the Ventures. After his first professional gig with accordionist Clifton Chenier in the '70s, Landreth struck out on his own, but not before he recorded two albums for the Blues Unlimited label out of Crowley, LA, Blues Attack in 1981 and Way Down in Louisiana in 1985. The second of those two albums got him noticed by some record executives in Nashville, which in turn led to his recording and touring work with John Hiatt. That led to still more work with John Mayall, who recorded Landreth's radio-ready "Congo Square." More recently, he's worked with New Orleans bandleader and pianist Allen Toussaint.

On Landreth's brilliant albums for Zoo, the lyrics draw the listener in to the sights, sounds, smells and heat of southwest Louisiana, and a strong sense of place is evident in many of Landreth's songs. Although his style is completely his own, Landreth admits writers like William Faulkner have had a big influence on his lyrics. Robert Johnson is his hero among guitarists. "When I finally discovered Robert Johnson, it all came together for me," Landreth said, noting that he also closely studied the recordings of Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt and Charley Patton. -Richard Skelly, All Music Guide


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Bama Theatre
Sponsored by Walter Energy with additional support from Hampton Inn