Ellen McIlwaine
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Ellen McIlwaine | |
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Born | Calgary, Alberta , Canada | October 1, 1945
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, slide guitarist |
Instrument(s) | Guitar, piano, harmonica |
Years active | 1960s–2021 |
Ellen McIlwaine (October 1, 1945 – June 23, 2021) was an American-born singer-songwriter and musician best known for her career as a solo singer, songwriter and slide guitarist.
Biography
Born in
In 1966, McIlwaine had a stint in New York City's Greenwich Village where she opened every night at the Cafe Au Go Go, playing with Jimi Hendrix, and opening for Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, and Big Joe Williams.[citation needed] She returned to Atlanta to form the band Fear Itself, a psychedelic blues rock band.
After recording one album with Fear Itself, McIlwaine went solo, recording two albums for
As a female vocalist who is known for her acoustic and electric slide guitar, her music tends to be classified in the folk sections of record stores, despite her strong roots in blues, gospel soul and rock music, and her cover versions of songs by Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder, Jack Bruce, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Winwood and Browning Bryant. McIlwaine met Hendrix in New York in 1966, briefly played with him and wrote "Underground River" about him.[citation needed] She was also an ardent fan of Jack Bruce and recorded a version of a song by Bruce and his lyricist Pete Brown on each of her first four solo albums - notably songs from Bruce's first solo album Songs for a Tailor, as well as songs associated with Bruce (such as "Born Under A Bad Sign"). This culminated in her collaboration with Bruce himself on her fourth solo album, Everybody Needs It (1982).
By the mid-1970s, McIlwaine's songs "Sliding", "We the People" and "Losing You" were included on the compilation album, The Guitar Album.
McIlwaine's album
McIlwaine gained a cult following in Australia thanks to exposure of her music on the Sydney-based AM public rock radio station
After moving to Canada in 1987, (first Toronto, later Alberta), McIlwaine recorded Looking for Trouble for Stony Plain Records, which also re-released her early vinyl material on CD. Her next CD Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine, was recorded live in Germany in 1999; and then Spontaneous Combustion featuring Taj Mahal on the German Tradition und Moderne label.[citation needed]
In spite of debilitating arthritis in her hips, she undertook a third tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2003, which reunited her with RoadKnight and the other Honky Tonk Angels, who had first brought her to Australia in 1980.[citation needed]
In 2006 she started her own label, Ellen McIlwaine Music, and released Mystic Bridge featuring the Indian tabla drummer Cassius Khan. They were joined by the soprano saxophone of Linsey Wellman on three tracks, including their version of "Take Me to the River", and harmonium playing by Amika Kushwaha on the last track, "The Question". This was a poem by Christine Steele, recited over Cassius Khan's vocal rendition of the ancient Urdu poem set to music, "Darbari Raag".[citation needed] The album was widely successful with critical acclaim.
In 2008, 2009, and 2010 she toured with Patty Larkin's La Guitara ensemble in the US, and in Canada with Sue Foley's Guitar Women, and appeared at various US and Canadian venues and festivals as a solo artist. In 2013 she traveled to Los Angeles to be part of the Jimi Hendrix documentary Hear My Train A Comin. In 2019, Ellen was awarded Toronto Blues Society's "Blues with a Feeling" Lifetime Achievement Award.[4]
McIlwaine died on June 23, 2021, in her long-time residence of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.[5] She had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer just six weeks prior.[6]
Discography
As principal artist
- Fear Itself (1969, with Fear Itself)
- Honky Tonk Angel (1972)
- We the People (1973)
- The Real Ellen McIlwaine(1975)
- Ellen McIlwaine (1978) - AUS #84[7]
- Everybody Needs It (1982)
- Looking For Trouble (1987)
- Up From the Skies: The Polydor Years(1998, compilation)
- Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine (1999)
- Spontaneous Combustion (2001)
- Live at Yellow (2002, Japanese release)
- Mystic Bridge (2006, with Cassius Khan)
- Ellen McIlwaine - Live in Gray Creek (2010)
Compilation inclusions
- Polydor)
References
- ^ McIlwaine, Ellen (2000). "Biography". Ellenmcilwaine.com. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ^ McIlwaine, Ellen. "Ellen McIlwaine's Trip to Japan". Ellenmcilwaine.com. Retrieved January 24, 2017.
- ^ "Ellen McIlwaine". Universalmusicenterprises.com. Retrieved November 28, 2018.
- ^ Maple Blues (Toronto Blues Society Newsletter). June 2019. pp. 5–6.
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(help) - ^ "Ellen McIlwaine, blues singer and slide guitarist, dies at 75". The Georgia Straight. June 23, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2021.
- ^ Jennings, Nicholas (June 29, 2021). "Ellen McIlwaine, a flame-haired slide guitarist and singer jammed with Hendrix". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
- ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ A compilation album of live performances from the Saturday Night Blues radio program on CBC Radio, hosted by Holger Petersen. McIlwaine's performance of "Howl at the Moon" is included.