RALPH, ALBERT & SYDNEY
Julie Ellison
www.julieellison.co.uk

"Julie is a terrific guitar player and she also writes great songs. She shared the stage with me at the South Shields guitar festival and the discerning audience loved her. She stormed it!" Ralph McTell

A short time ago a long time Ralph McTell fan, John Taylor, sent me some information about another artist he rated very highly. Julie Ellison has become a popular act on the folk circuit, but John and many others would like to see Julie's music reach a wider audience. Julie recently performed at the same Festival as Ralph, up in South Shields. She not only impressed the audience, but also Ralph, as you can see above.
Andy Langran

Julie Ellison - At Last
Sound Clip Sample: Spinning.mp3
Netrhythms.com
June 2004
http://netrhythms.com/reviews.html#ellison   
Julie's will, I suspect, be a new name to almost all of you out there, but you really should check her out if you have any predilection for top-quality acoustic music. It's no exaggeration whatsoever if I say she's one of the most accomplished singer-guitarist-songwriters I've ever come across, and it's even more surprising that this CD's her recorded debut.  
I first saw her play live at a small local venue in South Yorkshire some three or four years ago, and I was overwhelmed. She has an unassuming, even understated presence, but as soon as her fingers hit the fretboard you know you're in the company of a very special performer; then when she starts to sing. and then, when you realise the songs are her own too, well. it all adds up to one hell of a talent.  
Now Julie's real hard to pigeonhole (so don't try, just ride with her through her songs). Her musical language is diverse, but not in the attention-seeking manner beloved of the modern-day eclecticism merchants who just want to parade their theoretical mastery of a myriad of different styles; Julie's feel for the idiom over a whole range of musical expression (folk, blues, ragtime, rock and jazz) is utterly genuine, and she performs every song with awesome (though never over-emoted) passion.  
Julie's lyrics, often deceptively simple, are charged with the power of latent emotion, and they depict and discuss their particular (mostly romantic) dilemmas in a wholly natural, truthful and direct manner (by the way, Julie also helpfully provides notes on the background to each song, as well as details of the guitars she plays, in the accompanying booklet). Her easy command of vocal phrasing is brought further into the spotlight on the unaccompanied Eyes Of A Man. The songs are complemented by three self-penned instrumental pieces, ranging from the tender Parting (a love song to a guitar, which Julie dubs "a tune uncluttered with lyrics"!) to the self-evidently tricky Spinning (written as a "challenge to myself", Julie says) which almost incidentally demonstrate Julie's apparently effortless mastery of the guitar.  
This CD, although a product of studio recording, has been engineered with the ethos of live recording in mind so that it accurately reflects what you get in Julie's live performances - i.e., one guitar, one voice, no overdubs. The twelve tracks, recorded at different times and in a variety of studio environments over the past few years (the earliest dates from 1998, the most recent from January this year), manage so beautifully to retain the essential immediacy, the distinct frisson of that live performance ("flying close to the edge" as Julie herself puts it in her typically succinct booklet note), and fully capture the very soul and spirit of her musical personality. And taken together they achieve a remarkable artistic unity.  
This is a superbly classy CD, and you owe it to yourself to hear Julie at the earliest opportunity; "at last" you can, and very easily! Though I'd still insist you get to see her live in concert - mostly in the north at the moment, but she's supporting Ralph McTell at the Customs House International Guitar Festival (South Shields) next month, and there are gigs down in Kent in the autumn (see her website for details of gigs and also for samples of the album).

Julie Ellison: 'At Last'
Sound Clip Sample Southbound.p3
The Folk Mag
http://www.btinternet.com/~radical/thefolkmag/reviews.htm
Acoustyistics ACYCD104, 68, Brunswick Street, Thurnscoe, Rotherham, South Yorkshire S63 0HY
visit www.acoustyistics.co.uk or www.julieellison.co.uk
'At last' is Julie Ellison's debut solo album, the title perhaps reflecting the time that it's taken for this CD to come to fruition. Was it worth the wait? You bet it was. Julie is a wonderful singer and a brilliant guitarist who writes beautifully crafted songs. The songs were all recorded 'as live' - just Julie and her guitar, no electronic gizmos - over a period of no less than five years at two studios.
First, the songs. Julie writes tender, expressive lyrics that at times verge on the painful, right from the first tracks, the bluesy Easy Goodbye: "you have done me wrong but I won't lie down and die", and the eerily beautiful Look into My Eyes, where Julie also invites us to "look into my soul", through to the closing tracks, Waiting for a Miracle, chorus: "all men are bastards" (o.k. she may have a point!), and the stunningly beautiful title song At Last, "it never gets any easier". In between, well, Julie has had a varied career since outgrowing her first guitar tutor at the tender age of ten - classical, jazz, country, ragtime, rock, even theatre - and this is reflected in the sheer variety of the songs and tunes on show.
The voice. Well, if you're going to write songs like these, you need a voice to go with them and Julie has just that. Soulful, expressive and evocative, she sings with emotion but with a clarity and purity that allows you to hang on every word. In Another Wet Tuesday, her voice is enough to make your toes curl - sleepy, bluesy, simply beautiful.
Last and definitely not least, the guitar. If there is a better female guitarist in the country, I'm not aware of her. Just listen to Spinning, a fiendishly difficult, self-penned ragtime tune that Julie says took her years to learn to play. Her playing is distinctive and versatile, reflecting her early classical training and subsequent jazz and country influences. She loves her guitars to the extent that the sleeve notes even include pictures, histories and descriptions of her favourite guitars. Magic!
Dave Emery

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