Robert Ellis

An Americana singer/songwriter who deftly counterbalances his earnest troubadour side with a sly eccentric streak, Robert Ellis first emerged from Texas with the finely rendered Photographs. Crossing the weathered, folky storytelling of Townes Van Zandt with rowdy honky tonk, Photographs showed that Ellis was an heir to two distinct strands of Texas country, a duality that thrived over the course of his career. Ellis chose to fuse the two sides together on such records as his eponymous 2016 album, but he’d also tease them apart: he followed the raucous humor of 2019′s Texas Piano Man with Yesterday’s News, a tender and introspective album, in 2023. Before signing with New West Records in early 2011, country songwriter Robert Ellis made a name for himself in Houston. 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 up-tempo 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 and issued in February 2014. After extensive touring and experiencing the dissolution of his marriage, Ellis returned to recording. He self-produced his next album, simply titled Robert Ellis, at Sugar Hill Studios in Houston. It was engineered by Steve Christiansen and mixed by John Agnello. A pre-release single and video for “How I Love You” did well on streaming sites, and the album appeared in June 2016. Dear John, a collaborative album with Courtney Hartman, appeared in 2017, after which Ellis resumed to his solo career with 2019′s Texas Piano Man, that emphasized his playful pop side, a change in direction that was a passing phase. By the time he released Yesterday’s News in 2023, Ellis had returned to hushed, moody country-folk. ~ Andrew Leahey