Woodshedding

Two things I'm really enjoying at the moment: playing music with my old friend Jon 'Scoop' Randall, and deconstructing my songs with acoustic instruments. I'm rehearsing the new material acoustically, for shows like White Mountain at the end of September, and the songs reveal new aspects of themselves in an acoustic setting. Even rockers like 'Rant'! Sidney Rash, a young Durban drummer, is extremely talented, and the combination of stripped-down drums and percussion, with a little double bass and acoustic guitar, make for an interesting new musical side-path.

Scoop and I have been friends for over 15 years. We started a fledgling Tree63 together with my brother Antony on drums, and Scoop went on to play on all the early Tree63 'hits' like Treasure and A Million Lights. He's a great bass player, but more recently he's come into his own as a talented studio engineer. He helped me demo four songs before I went into the recording process for 'Come Out Fighting', and we've had a great time in the last few years playing music together again.

So, all in all, a busy musical time, although I'm not playing live as nearly as much as I'd like to. trying to fix that, but it's a mystifyingly slow process. So in the meantime, I'll be bringing John Ellis and the Woodshed Ensemble to a coffee bar near you! Book us at bookings@johnellis.co.za!

Thanks for listening.