New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Texas-based singer/songwriter Robert Ellis released a new single titled "Gene." The song is the latest peak at his forthcoming album Yesterday's News, due out May 19th through his label Niles City Records. Like much of the record, "Gene" is a tranquil rumination on a flawed and broken world, one that acknowledges the ugliness that surrounds us but still insists on finding the beauty and promise in our shared humanity.
"I wrote this song for my oldest son, or rather to him," stated Ellis. "The whole tune spilled out early one morning in a sort of half awake stream of consciousness. When I was a kid, it felt like the adults had a lot of answers to a lot of things. Becoming a grown-up was pretty disorienting. I don't really feel like I have things (anything) figured out like I thought I would. I'm anxious, I'm scared. I guess I just want my kids to know that sometimes 'I don't know' is ok. I don't have all the answers, but I'm here for you, and I love you."
"Gene" follows the release of the title track "Yesterday's News," a wry tune that drifts like a cloud on the breeze as Robert channels a washed up singer on some dimly lit stage. The stunning official video was directed by Erica Silverman and shows footage that spans four continents documenting his worldwide tours over the years. It was picked up by Rolling Stone, Wide Open Country, Variance, The Bluegrass Situation, Glide, No Depression, and Brooklyn Vegan who called it a "spare, lilting track," while The Boot named it "enchanting."
An ever evolving, creatively restless renaissance man, Ellis is redefining himself yet again with Yesterday's News, this time on his own, in far more honest terms. Coming off his raucous 2019 album
Texas Piano Man, Ellis is changing course and embracing a raw minimalist approach that prizes patience and restraint above all else.
Recorded live to tape in just two days, it's as stripped-down as it gets, with his delicate, reedy tenor accompanied only by nylon string guitar, upright bass, and the occasional piece of handheld percussion. The arrangements are harmonically sophisticated, drawing on the open tunings and intricate fingerpicking of English songwriters like Nick
Drake or Richard Thompson.
Ellis's performances are similarly subtle and nuanced, tapping into the bittersweet longing of
Chet Baker and the playful poignancy of Bill Evans and Jim Hall. What emerges is a record that's not quite folk and not quite jazz, a series of intimate, unhurried meditations on growth and maturity, hope and regret, desire and contentment, all delivered by an artist learning to let go and get quiet, to slow down and appreciate the tiny little miracles that make life worth living.
Subverting expectations is nothing new for the celebrated songwriter and producer. Over the course of five solo albums, Ellis has flirted with everything from
Paul Simon and
John Prine to
Elton John and Joni Mitchell, zigging whenever he was expected to zag in a series of sonic and visual transformations that ran the gamut from Redneck
Steely Dan to Lone Star Liberace. NPR has hailed his "musical daring and impeccable songcraft," while Rolling Stone praised his "sharp eye for storytelling," and The New York Times lauded his writing as an emotional "gut punch."
