Cedar Family presents Ellis Paul

"Noted folk singer-songwriter Ellis Paul serves up a deft, soulful acoustic mix of American folk and contemporary pop in songs that find magic in road trips, dragonflies, "The Star Inside the Apple" and swings and pinwheels - simple pleasures. Traditional folk themes of world peace and harmony resonate with immediacy, but are delivered with a gentle touch ("The Million Chameleon March," "The Little Red Rose")." (The Dragonfly Races, Parents' Choice Silver Award winner 2008)

Here's what singer-songwriter Ellis Paul has to say about his family music project The Dragonfly Races:

After the birth of my daughter Sofi and a six week stay at home helping with her arrival, I realized my oldest daughter, Ella, closing in on three at the time, was spending hours listening to the music of a strange cast of characters, right beneath my nose. The likes of Barney, Elmo, Dan Zanes, Robbie Schaefer, Billy Jonas, and others had snuck into our house and stolen her ears with the clang of their joyful music. My music was lost somehow as an after thought.

And so, I began writing these tunes, gathering ideas with my wife and friends, songs I could add to Ella's (and soon, Sofi's) already wonderful knowledge of music, but with the ideas and notions that I wanted her to hear coming straight from me, her Mom, and the gifted community of friends I have gathered around me.

Suddenly, Ella was singing my songs around the house again. Her voice was carrying our words, and what a joy that was to hear. Collaborating with Flynn, Antje [Duvekot], Billy Jonas, and Vance Gilbert brought even a greater sense of community into the process.

I've also been a visual artist for most of my life, and was thrilled to finally have an opportunity to join my music with my illustrations. We hope to further this project with actual books of many of the songs. To see the fulfillment of such a complete concept coming to fruition has been the most thrilling album birth for me since Stories came out some fifteen years ago.

Since it's my first attempt at a children's/family CD, I am hoping that the broad sweep of songs, stories, and characters will manage to entertain a very broad age group including parents and grandparents. I know one three year old who loves the songs already, and she was the target audience.

I've always considered myself a folk singer, despite the fact that I am clearly not putting out folk albums. They have always been singer-songwriter records with pop, rock, country, jazz, folk-rock over tones, but many of them include folk themes, social commentary, story songs of people struggling with the day to day issues of being a human being.

I am in love with great songwriting. Cole Porter, Willie Nelson, Cash, Dylan, Mozart, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, John Prine. I love a good jingle. I'm serious. If it captures its intention, and was written with any kind of Zen clarity and thoughtfulness, then I am a fan. I love listening to School House Rock, and some of the brilliant writing on Sesame Street and the Muppets.

But in my work, I've always written for myself, and taken my perspective, using my writing as a personal process to understand my world better, my friends experiences, etc. I've never written purely for a target audience as a goal, I've really only written for myself with the hopes that people would enjoy it. The result with this CD is that the songs waste no time meandering through my arguments of what, and where and why. They were written to hook the person listening and entertain them, not to explain myself, not present an argument, or the song to someone as my adult work has been over the years.

These songs are for my kids. What does Ella like? So I wrote a song about swinging. What themes should this generation of kids grow up with? Peace is all over the album.

Tickets are on sale now from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), Cedar outlets (Electric Fetus, Homestead Pickin' Parlor, Irish on Grand, and Depth of Field), and online at Ticketweb.
$5 ages 2 to 12, $10 ages 13 and up. Under 2's are free.

Ellis Paul

Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices of the American singer- songwriter world. He was a principle leader in the wave of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene, which helped revitalize the national acoustic circuit with an urban,...