Robert Ellis - Photographs '2011

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. Friends Like Those
02. Bamboo
03. Cemetary
04. Two Cans of Paint
05. Westbound Train
06. Comin' Home
07. What's in It for Me?
08. I'll Never Give Up on You
09. No Fun
10. Photographs

Texas singer/songwriter Robert Ellis is not shy about citing his influences,
name-checking "Lefty [Frizzell], Willie [Nelson], Hank [Williams], and Townes
[Van Zandt]" in "Comin' Home," a song on his second album, Photographs. In
keeping with the disc's nostalgic tone, Ellis has nearly divided it into two
sides like an old LP, in musical and thematic terms. On the first five songs, he
creates restrained arrangements based on his gently picked acoustic guitar,
singing specific, confessional lyrics in a wispy country tenor. After two tunes
devoted to the subject of friendship ("Friends Like Those," "Bamboo"), he traces
the beginnings of a relationship on "Cemetery" (where, ominously, it is
consummated) and "Two Cans of Paint" (in which housekeeping is set up). A
transition is effected in "Westbound Train," as, halfway through, Ellis builds
up a traditional country arrangement with drums kicking in. The second part of
the CD is full of such band tunes, the sound harking back to the 1950s of
Frizzell, as Ellis describes the deterioration of the love story he began
earlier. He, it seems, drinks; she, he thinks, cheats. The traditional sound
gives the words a more generalized tone and even undercuts them somewhat,
however. "No Fun," for instance, is set to a honky tonk hoedown that belies its
vindictive lyrics. Meanwhile, as a singer Ellis has built up to a George
Jones-like belt, the better to give his words a more universal context.
Photographs thus has it both ways as an intimate singer/songwriter effort and a
tribute to the country music Ellis reveres.



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