Speak No Evil

Personnel: Tinsley Ellis (vocals, guitar); Kevin McKendree (piano); Jeff Burch (drums, percussion).
Audio Mixers: Tony Terrebonne; Jimmeah Z.; Rodney Mills.
Recording information: Stonehenge; Zac Recording, Atlanta, GA.
Photographers: Nate Dorn; Flournoy Holmes.
Tinsley Ellis has worked hard since the early 1980s to establish himself on the contemporary blues scene. As a result, he has become one of the most consistent, and therefore quintessential, electric blues men. He's also a good songwriter in that he stretches the blues form as far as it will go, and occasionally he crosses into solid hard rock territory. On SPEAK NO EVIL, it seems as though Ellis has been listening to some of Robin Trower's early to mid-period records. And what seems to be at work on SPEAK NO EVIL is Ellis trying to push the blues form in a decidedly more rockist direction without losing its emotional feel. Check out the opening track, "Sunlight of Love" With its hard-driven wah-wah pedals and funky backbeat; one can easily imagine this track on Trower's TWICE REMOVED FROM YESTERDAY. Another number in this vein is "The Night Is Easy" (all that's missing are the phase shifters!). What's as impressive as Ellis' guitar playing is how much improved his singing is - it has grown more expressive and gained some subtlety as time has gone on. SPEAK NO EVIL is an ambitious album from Ellis; he's continued to grow musically and aesthetically without losing an ounce of his own identity in the process.