Tinsley Ellis, Bill Sheffield & the XLs February 18, 2011

Hard-rocking blues-soaked guitarist/vocalist/song-writer Tinsley Ellis sings and plays with the energy and soul of all the great Southern musicians who have come before him. Ellis attacks his music with rock power and blues feeling, following in the tradition of Deep South musical heroes Duane Allman, Freddie King, Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes. His live shows feature extended fretwork filled with melodic and rhythmic experimentation, in the spirit of jam bands like his friends Widespread Panic and The Allman Brothers. Atlanta Magazine declared Ellis "the most significant blues artist to emerge from Atlanta since Blind Willie McTell."

Everything about Bill Sheffield is authentic. It's there in the intense, transcendent way he finger picks his guitar with hints of John Hurt and Blind Blake flashing through. It's there in his songs that wrestle with earthly pleasure and the need for redemption. And it most definitely is there in Got A Gig, Gotta Go, his 9th studio recording on American Roots Records. Journal On A Shelf, Sheffield's release and the new Got A Gig, Gotta Go distill a lifetime pursuit of authentic American roots music that announce the arrival of one of the most significant roots musicians to emerge in the past decade.

Official Website: http://www.variety-playhouse.com/event/26571/