1. Ellis Paul was born on Paul Plissey; January 14,1965 and is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician.
55 Facts About Ellis Paul
1. 2.
Ellis Paul attended Boston College on a track scholarship, majoring in English.
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Ellis Paul won a Boston Acoustic Underground songwriter competition and gained national exposure on a Windham Hill Records compilation which helped him choose music as a career.
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Ellis Paul had released 19 albums by the end of 2014 and received 14 Boston Music Awards, considered the pinnacle of contemporary acoustic music success by some.
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Ellis Paul has published a book of original lyrics, poems, and drawings and released a DVD that includes a live performance, guitar instruction, and a road-trip documentary.
6.
Ellis Paul's mother, the former Marilyn Bonney of Buckfield, Maine, is a University of Maine graduate and was an extension agent for northern Aroostook County.
7.
Ellis Paul excelled in track, becoming the Maine State champion in five-kilometer distance running, a feat that garnered several scholarship offers, including an offer from Boston College.
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Ellis Paul was inducted into the Presque Isle High School Athletic Hall of Fame on January 11,2013.
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Ellis Paul majored in English at Boston College where he continued to participate in track.
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Ellis Paul taught himself to play guitar with the help of a Hits of the 70s songbook, and began to write songs.
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Ellis Paul became a regular face at those clubs along with other young folk musicians such as Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, Dar Williams and Vance Gilbert.
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Ellis Paul played Cambridge's Club Passim, a venue that would become his "home" venue, for the first time when he opened for John Gorka in October 1989.
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Ellis Paul continued to play in and around the New England area.
14.
Ellis Paul asked Morrissey to produce his first album Say Something, which was released in 1993 on Black Wolf records.
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Ellis Paul became a follower of the music of Woody Guthrie during the early 1990s.
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That chance meeting resulted in Ellis Paul being invited to perform at a Woody Guthrie tribute show at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Ellis Paul stated that when he made the pilgrimage to Okemah he felt that he was walking in Woody's footsteps and that the experience was "like going to the mount".
18.
Ellis Paul released his first live recording, simply titled Live, on March 14,2000.
19.
Highlights of the year 2000 included Ellis Paul singing the National Anthem at Fenway Park, and having his song "The World Ain't Slowing Down" chosen for the theme song in the Farrelly brothers movie Me, Myself and Irene starring Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger.
20.
In November 2001, Ellis Paul was again successful in having a song in a movie when "Sweet Mistakes" was featured in Shallow Hal starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black.
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Ellis Paul released his 8th CD, Sweet Mistakes, a collection of audience-favorites not yet recorded, on November 15,2001.
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In January 2002, Ellis Paul was named the FolkWax Artist of the Year for 2001.
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Ellis Paul invited Paul to visit the Archives and choose one set of lyrics to put to song.
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Ellis Paul chose "God's Promise", lyrics that Woody had adapted in 1955 from "What God Hath Promised", a hymn of the day and recorded it for his 2002 release Speed of Trees.
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Ellis Paul said that visiting the Woody Guthrie Archives was like going through a time capsule of his biggest hero and that the posthumous collaboration with Woody Guthrie was one of the "coolest things" he'd ever done.
26.
On May 1,2004, Ellis Paul was the recipient of the 2nd annual Boston College Arts Council Alumni Award for Artistic Achievement.
27.
In 2004 Ellis Paul was awarded his 13th Boston Music Award in the category of Outstanding Singer-Songwriter.
28.
At the time Ellis Paul was writing what he called "country tunes" when he teamed up with an Irish musician, producer, and studio expert named Flynn.
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Ellis Paul said that his collaboration with Flynn formed a partnership where he brought banjos and accordions and Flynn brought a laptop and keyboard.
30.
Since approximately 1995, Ellis Paul has annually played Club Passim over New Year's, performing two shows on December 30 and two shows on New Year's Eve.
31.
In May 2006, Ellis Paul toured Europe and England playing to sold-out shows in Paris, France; Twickenham, England; Cheltenham, England and Wasserburg, Germany.
32.
Ellis Paul was included on the Woody Guthrie Coalition's DVD Woody Sez: a Tribute to Woody Guthrie released in 2006.
33.
The tribute show, recorded July 13,2005, at the Crystal Theater in Okemah, Oklahoma, included Ellis Paul performing a duet with The Burns Sisters on "God's Promise".
34.
In January 2008, Ellis Paul released a children's and family record entitled The Dragonfly Races.
35.
Rather than work with a record label, Ellis Paul invited fans to help finance the recording by offering donors various premiums determined by the level of donation.
36.
Ellis Paul performed his eight solo albums in chronological order over four shows.
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The songs on the album are all written about persons who Ellis Paul considers to be American heroes including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Rosa Parks.
38.
On July 12,2014, Ellis Paul was one of four performers inducted into the Maine Music Awards Hall of Fame.
39.
Ellis Paul performed along with other members of the inaugural class which included Don McLean, Howie Day, and David Mallett.
40.
Ellis Paul is supported by Kristian Bush, Brandon Bush, Sugarland's Travis McNabb, Gray Griggs, Megan Lovell, Tim Smith, Ben Torres, Michael Snell and Brandyn Taylor.
41.
In 2000 Ellis Paul contributed backing vocals to Dave Nachmanoff's "A Certain Distance".
42.
In September 2003 Ellis Paul released Side of the Road, a duo album recorded with good friend Vance Gilbert.
43.
Early in his career Ellis Paul promised himself that he would always write about the things he knew well.
44.
Ellis Paul's is a poet's heart, and a romantic's soul.
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Ellis Paul is an optimist who believes in people and possibilities.
46.
When teaching songwriting classes, Ellis Paul often introduces aspiring songwriters to his "six-step program to effective songwriting" which is based on the premise that songwriters should show and not tell.
47.
Ellis Paul teaches this six-step method to develop a character in a song:.
48.
Ellis Paul says that being a successful songwriter is like being a journalist who writes about what he sees and knows, the times people are living in and the things people are facing today.
49.
Ellis Paul continues playing close to 200 dates annually on the folk circuit.
50.
Ellis Paul's songs have appeared on more than 50 compilation CDs, and he has made nearly 40 guest appearances on the albums of artists including Lori McKenna, David Wilcox and Mark Erelli.
51.
Ellis Paul has spun his story songs for nearly twenty years now, and has eleven studio recordings to his credit.
52.
In September 2012, Presque Isle High School announced that Ellis Paul would be one of four high school graduates inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame at the third annual ceremony on January 11,2013.
53.
Ellis Paul won a cross-country state championship as a senior as well as three Eastern Maine titles and a 5,000-meter state crown in track.
54.
On May 17,2014, Ellis Paul was the commencement address speaker at the University of Maine at Presque Isle's 105th commencement.
55.
Ellis Paul was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree during the commencement ceremony.