Robert Ellis will return to Houston for the 2015 Free Press Summer Festival. | Instagram
In 2014, country folk artist Robert Ellis released his third album “The Lights from the Chemical Plant” after joining a Nashville studio in 2012. Still, Ellis pays tribute to his hometown with the song “Houston,” in which he laments having to leave.
“Oh, Houston, I’m moving tonight
But it does not mean that we’ll have to part
Oh, Houston this is not goodbye
You will be living inside of my heart”
But Ellis was not gone for long — the artist was announced as part of the Free Press Summer Festival Lineup on June 6 and 7.
Ellis gained local renown by playing weekly at “Whiskey Wednesdays” at Fitzgerald’s. There, while selling copies of his 2009 self-released album “The Great Rearranger” to fans after shows, he found favor in the eyes of the Houston Press and — more importantly to his career — New West Records. New West signed him and “Photographs,” which gained recognition by American Songwriter Magazine as one of the top 50 albums of the year, was released in 2011.
After “Photographs,” Ellis spent much of his time touring with bands like Old Crow Medicine Show, Alabama Shakes and Old 97s. When not touring, he lived with his wife in a trailer outside of Austin, where he mused on his upbringing in Lake Jackson and wrote much of the material that would become “The Lights from the Chemical Plant.”
Before the 2014 album was released, Ellis told Rolling Stone the record would contain elements of other genres, like R&B and free jazz, which is evident in Rob Crowell’s melancholic saxophone solo in “Bottle of Wine” and the breakdown groove toward the end of “Pride.”
Ellis moved to the country music capitol in November 2012 to work with Grammy award-winning record producer Jacquire King in the Casino, a garage-built studio owned by recording engineer Eric Masse. Ellis told Rolling Stone that King, who produced artists such as Tom Waits, Kings of Leon and Norah Jones, pushed him to create “a great record compared to some good songs.”
But this great record has good songs, too. “Chemical Plant” tells the somber story of two separated lovers looking on the lights of the chemical plant — a facility likely similar to the Dow chemical facilities in Lake Jackson where Ellis was raised — and thinking of each other. In a bluesy, folk blaze, “Sing Along” rages against the shaping of children’s ideals and thoughts through Christian indoctrination. “TV Song” shows a society living vicariously through television shows.
Passes to see Ellis and the rest of the lineup at Free Press Summer Fest 2015 are available at fpsf.com.
