Labor Of Love

In 2024 guitar-slinging bluesman Tinsley Ellis released Naked Truth, his first solo acoustic album. A success critically and commercially, the LP revealed a different dimension in the musicians character and it was nominated for a Blues Music Award. He toured the record, driving his car across the U.S. playing unaccompanied shows that delighted longtime fans and garnered many new ones as well as the artist. He wrote prodigiously before re-entering the recording studio alone in 2025 and recording Labor of Love. He cut 13 originals playing only acoustic guitars and, for the first time, used a mandolin. Ellis used six open tunings (all different) on several rare guitars: A 1969 Martin D-35 and Martin D-12-20 12-string, and a 1937 National Steel O Series. He also used a badass stompbox. The array of tunings created new tonal and dynamic possibilities. Ellis is a modern bluesman but also a devotee of the Delta tradition reflected here. This isnt the work of a mere revivalist. Other than pristine sound and his organic production, these tracks could have been recorded in the early 20th century. The topically cognizant songs are saturated in the classic Delta vernacular covering subjects including floods, fires, voodoo, hardships, and raw prayers and pleas to the powers above. Opener "Hoodoo Woman" straddles the lines between Jimmy Holmes Bentonia tradition and Skip James profound influence, with a mandolin providing a second harmonic melody. "Long Time" is delivered in the lineage of John Lee Hookers footstomping boogie. James profound influence on Ellis is heard in the slow, spooky "To a Hammer." "Sad Sad Song" is a downhome Georgia blues that employs mandolin as the lead instrument with a stompbox and hand claps in an upbeat tempo despite the downer lyrics. "The Trouble with Love" is a fingerpicked country blues. Ellis vocals are smooth and glorious while recalling Canned Heats Bob Hite. On the rough and rowdy "Sunnyland," Ellis uses the National Steel resonator and an amplified stompbox that sounds like a bass drum. One can easily trace the tunes raw groove to Son Houses influence. The unruly vocal is joyful and resonant while his single-string solo bites and growls. Highlight "Sweet Ice Tea" will make almost anyone hungry for soul food as the guitarist romps through the Northern Mississippi Hill Country tradition. The influence of House and Muddy Waters early Stovall Plantation sides is rife in the desperate "Id Rather Be Saved." Ellis lyric favors death and spiritual redemption over darkness and pain. Mandolin and the Martin 12-string frame the joyously uptempo barnburner "Too Broke." Closer "Lay My Burden Down" is played on a fingerpicked Martin six-string adorned by a slide in open-E tuning -- one can hear the ghost of Mississippi Fred McDowell in this folk-blues thats at once reflective and soulful. Labor of Love is an unqualified masterpiece. Ellis reveals the depths of his confidence and singular ability to create startling modern songs that directly embody and build on the spirit and heartbeat of the early blues tradition. ~ Thom Jurek