William Lee Ellis – Ghost Hymns
https://williamleeellis.bandcamp.com/
12 songs time – 37:44
Now for something completely different…A master Americana-Roots musician with an exotic bent and a creative mind. William Lee Ellis surely isn’t your parents’ acoustic artist. He has a way of adding unusual twists and instrumentation to his mainly original music. His father Tony Ellis was a member of Bill Monroe’s early 60s Blue Grass Boys. The instrumentation ranges from acoustic guitar, banjo, exotic stringed instruments, fiddle, harmonica, spare and sometimes exotic percussion to a string section on one song. He achieves diverse variety in acoustic settings. He is a master finger-style guitarist as well as possessing an endearing and hearty voice.
The opening number “Cony Catch The Sun” is his one of three solo pieces, this one finds him on the fretless banjo. “Flood Tale” begins life as a “picking’ and a grinning'” foot stomper to trail off into a more somber religious ending. It includes the use of a dolceola , variously referred to as a Zither or a miniature piano. Two lovely and lilting intertwining guitars give you the sensation of lazily floating down the river in “Pearl River Blues”.
They bring out various clanging percussion instruments for the happy-go-lucky “All For You”. Violins, viola and cello lend a cinematic quality to lush instrumental “Earth And Winding Sheet”. Julie Coffey adds a secondary vocal to “Call On Me (An Edidolon Air)”. Pete Sutherland provides down home fiddle. A yueqin, an Oriental stringed instrument is played alongside acoustic guitar on the mellow instrumental “Lost Heaven”. More fiddle, banjo and washboard in praise of Jesus on “Mumblin’ Word”.
The third in the quartet of instrumentals, “Goat Island”, employs Koblavi Dogah on conga and axatse, an African rattle shaker. More exotic instrumentation, Ebows and aslatua (type of African shaker) on “River Of Need”. The last instrumental “Belarus” finds William on acoustic along with Tom Clearly on piano for a lovely mellow tune. KeruBo duets on vocal on the contemplation on death, “Bury Me In The Sky”, that wraps up with an instrumental excerpt from “I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore”.
Such a well thought out and put together acoustic program is a respite from the usual electric sounds that permeate today’s music. It uplifts ones’ soul with its’ beautiful simplicity. This being is first release in over a decade, let us hope he doesn’t wait too long for more soothing music such as this.
