Robert's Review of Tinsley Ellis at Berkeley Cafe, 10/31/97

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It was a dark and dreary night, Halloween night in the empty streets of downtown Raleigh when Tinsley Ellis split the night with stinging guitar and a rocking rhythm section as he made peace with the spirits of the night. The Berkeley Cafe had its share of witches, devils, disco dancers, and an Austin Powers clone but they were united in the power of the blues. Tinsley was the wizard of the night, wearing a jester's hat he stood front and center watching the crowd listen and dance as he enthralled them with songs of the ghosts of life - broken affairs, broken hearts, and broken nights lost in drink and the blues.

The dichotomy of the blues is that it celebrates the dark hours of living while bringing forth relief and exuberance - or as BB King said of another slice of life it "Brings joy out of pain." There are those who don't want to hear the blues because they associate the blues with sadness and they don't want to be depressed. But a good bluesmen may dip into the depths of a broken heart but they will transcend the grief or anger to find a redeeming emotional release from the pain of the story. An out of the body experience where the listener can look from the outside onto the pain of life and come through renewed. Instead of being haunted by heartaches, the ghosts are brought out and taught to dance anew night. Tinsley Ellis brought release to the souls at the Berkeley this Halloween night.

Ellis is from Atlanta recording first with the Heartfixers and now with his own band. He was backed by piano, bass, and drums - steady players but it was clearly Tinsley's show. He led them through songs by Magic Sam and Freddy King - and the old First Edition hit "Just Dropped In." A strange choice - Tinsley Ellis playing Kenny Rodgers - but it worked. Even stronger were his own songs including the slow dramatic "Ax is going to Fall", the rocking "Heartfixer", and the songs from his new CD.

Having heard a couple of his CDs I thought he would be good live and I was right - he was great. The music ranged from slow burning blues to hard rocking and hard driving tunes. Some were instrumentals and some had rough but soulfully expressive singing. Many blues guitar players suffer when they take the vocals but Tinsley holds his own. He played some fat sounding guitar with power chords and some guitar with a light stinging touch on his Gibson. It was a well-rounded professional attack of the blues.

And on a Halloween night in Raleigh, Tinsley's blues made peace with the ghosts of the night and life and joy was remembered from the pain of life.

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