Ellen McIlwaine (October 1, 1945 – June 23, 2021) was an American-born singer-songwriter and musician best known for her career as a solo singer, songwriter and slide guitarist.

Biography

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, McIlwaine was adopted by missionaries and raised in Kobe, Japan, giving her exposure to multiple languages and cultures. She attended the

Canadian Academy Canadian Academy (CA; カナディアン・アカデミー ''Kanadian Akademii''), founded in 1913, is an independent pre-K – grade 12 international school in Kobe, Japan. The day and boarding school consists of an elementary school, middle schoo ...

school in Kobe, graduating in 1963. Her first experience in music was playing on piano

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

Fats Domino Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New O ...

and Professor Longhair songs that she heard on Japanese radio. On moving back to the United States she bought a guitar, beginning a stage career in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

in the mid-1960s. In 1966, McIlwaine had a stint in New York City's

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

where she opened every night at the

Cafe Au Go Go The Cafe Au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre building in the late 1960s, and located at 152 Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York City. The club featured many musical groups, f ...

, playing with Jimi Hendrix, and opening for

Muddy Waters McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago ...

, Sonny Terry and

Brownie McGhee Walter Brown "Brownie" McGhee (November 30, 1915 – February 16, 1996) was an American folk music and Piedmont blues singer and guitarist, best known for his collaboration with the harmonica player Sonny Terry. Life and career McGhee was ...

, and Big Joe Williams. She returned to Atlanta to form the band Fear Itself, a psychedelic blues rock band. After recording one album with Fear Itself, McIlwaine went solo, recording two albums for

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States ...

, ''Honky Tonk Angel'' (1972) and ''We the People'' (1973), the latter featuring a hit single, "I Don't Want to Play". Those albums, and most of her work since, have featured McIlwaine's approach to acoustic slide guitar. This was followed by '' The Real Ellen McIlwaine'', recorded for the indepdendent Canadian label Kot'ai, which featured two of her 'signature' songs, her slide guitar version of Stevie Wonder's " Higher Ground" and "The Secret In This Lady's Heart". As a female vocalist who is known for her acoustic and electric slide guitar, her music tends to be classified in the folk sections of record stores, despite her strong roots in blues, gospel soul and rock music, and her

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of songs by Isaac Hayes, Stevie Wonder,

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of British rock band Cream. After the group disband ...

, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Winwood and Browning Bryant. McIlwaine met Hendrix in New York in 1966, briefly played with him and wrote "Underground River" about him. She was also an ardent fan of

and recorded a version of a song by Bruce and his lyricist Pete Brown on each of her first four solo albums - notably songs from Bruce's first solo album '' Songs for a Tailor'', as well as songs associated with Bruce (such as "Born Under A Bad Sign"). This culminated in her collaboration with Bruce himself on her fourth solo album, ''Everybody Needs It'' (1982). By the mid-1970s McIlwaine's songs "Sliding", "We the People" and "Losing You" were included on the compilation album, '' The Guitar Album''. McIlwaine's album '' The Real Ellen McIlwaine'', was recorded in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

in 1975 for the Kotai label, and included the Stevie Wonder song ' Higher Ground'. Her intro later appeared on the David Holmes Essential Collection. A 1982 project, '' Everybody Needs It'' won the NAIRD Indie Award, and featured Jack Bruce. McIlwaine gained a cult following in Australia thanks to exposure of her music on the Sydney-based AM public rock radio station

2JJ Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

(now Triple-J). In 1980 she made her first tour of Australia, after being spotted by the Australian singer-guitarist

Margret RoadKnight Margret RoadKnight (born in July 1943) is an Australian singer-guitarist. In a career spanning more than five decades, she has sung in a wide variety of styles including blues, jazz, gospel, comedy, cabaret, and folk. In January 1976 she relea ...

, who was one of the co-promoters of the tour. She returned to Australia in 1984, and during this tour was the last performer to appear at Sydney's historic Regent Theatre prior to its closure and subsequent demolition. After moving to Canada in 1987, (first

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, later

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

), McIlwaine recorded ''Looking for Trouble'' for Stony Plain Records, which also re-released her early vinyl material on CD. Her next CD ''Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine,'' was recorded live in Germany in 1999; and then ''

Spontaneous Combustion Spontaneous combustion or spontaneous ignition is a type of combustion which occurs by self-heating (increase in temperature due to exothermic internal reactions), followed by thermal runaway (self heating which rapidly accelerates to high te ...

'' featuring

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

on the German Tradition und Moderne label. In spite of debilitating arthritis in her hips, she undertook a third tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2003, which reunited her with RoadKnight and the other Honky Tonk Angels, who had first brought her to Australia in 1980. In 2006 she started her own label, Ellen McIlwaine Music, and released ''

Mystic Bridge A mystic is a person who practices mysticism, or a reference to a mystery, mystic craft, first hand-experience or the occult. Mystic may also refer to: Places United States * Mistick, an old name for parts of Malden and Medford, Massachusetts * ...

'' featuring the Indian

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

drummer

Cassius Khan Cassius Khan (born 7 June 1974), is a Canadian Indian classical musician known for playing the Tabla while singing. Early years Khan was born in Lautoka, Fiji in 1974. As a young teenager in Vancouver, Canada, Khan met Mushtari Begum, a Ghaz ...

. They were joined by the soprano saxophone of Linsey Wellman on three tracks, including their version of "Take Me to the River", and harmonium playing by Amika Kushwaha on the last track, "The Question". This was a poem by Christine Steele, recited over Cassius Khan's vocal rendition of the ancient Urdu poem set to music, "Darbari Raag". The album was widely successful with critical acclaim and received a Juno nomination in 2008. In 2008, 2009, and 2010 she toured with

Patty Larkin Patty Larkin (born June 19, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist based in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a founding member of Four Bitchin' Babes. Her music has been described as folk-urban pop music. Life and career Patty Lar ...

's La Guitara ensemble in the US, and in Canada with Sue Foley's Guitar Women, and appeared at various US and Canadian venues and festivals as a solo artist. In 2013 she traveled to Los Angeles to be part of the Jimi Hendrix documentary ''Hear My Train A Comin''. In 2019, Ellen was awarded Toronto Blues Society's "Blues with a Feeling" Lifetime Achievement Award. Maple Blues (Toronto Blues Society Newsletter), June 2019, pp. 5–6. McIlwaine died on June 23, 2021, in her long-time residence of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She had been diagnosed with esophageal cancer just six weeks prior.

Discography

As principal artist

*'' Fear Itself'' (1969, with Fear Itself) *'' Honky Tonk Angel'' (1972) *''

We the People The Preamble to the United States Constitution, beginning with the words We the People, is a brief introductory statement of the Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding principles. Courts have referred to it as reliable evidence o ...

'' (1973) *'' The Real Ellen McIlwaine'' (1975) *''Ellen McIlwaine (1978) - AUS #84 *'' Everybody Needs It ''(1982) *''Looking For Trouble'' (1987) *'' Up From the Skies: The Polydor Years'' (1998, compilation) *'' Women in (e)motion Festival/Ellen McIlwaine ''(1999) *'' Spontaneous Combustion ''(2001) *''Live at Yellow'' (2002, Japanese release) *'' Mystic Bridge ''(2006, with

) *Ellen McIlwaine - Live in Gray Creek (2010)

Compilation inclusions

*'' The Guitar Album'' (1974,

) *'' Saturday Night Blues: 20 Years'' (2006, CBC)A compilation album of live performances from the

Saturday Night Blues ''Saturday Night Blues'' is a Canadian radio program, which airs Saturday nights on CBC Music. Hosted by Holger Petersen, the program airs a mix of blues concerts, recordings and interviews with blues musicians. ''SNB'' first broadcast on CBC Radi ...

radio program on

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

, hosted by

Holger Petersen Holger Petersen, (born 23 November 1949) is a Canadian businessman, record producer and radio broadcaster. He founded the independent roots music record label Stony Plain Records in 1975 with partner Alvin Jahns. The label was sold to True Nor ...

. McIlwaine's performance of "Howl at the Moon" is included.

References

4 Ellen McIlwaine 2019 Maple Blues (Toronto Blues Society Newsletter), June, pp. 5–6.

External links

The Ellen McIlwaine Pages – History and complete discography
* *
Toronto Blues Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:McIlwaine, Ellen 1945 births 2021 deaths American expatriate musicians in Canada American expatriates in Japan American women singers American acoustic guitarists American blues guitarists Blues rock musicians Slide guitarists Women guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American women guitarists Musicians from Nashville, Tennessee 21st-century American women