Tinsley Ellis w/ Ray Bonneville SUN Nov 15th, 2026 Doors 6pm | Show 7pm

TINSLEY ELLIS Tinsley Ellis has been immersed in music his whole life. Born in Atlanta 1957 and raised in southern Florida, he acquired his first guitar at age seven, inspired by seeing The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. He took to guitar instantly, developing and sharpening his skills as he grew up. Like many kids his age, Ellis discovered the blues through the back door of British Invasion bands like The Yardbirds, The Animals, Cream and The Rolling Stones as well as Southern rockers like The Allman Brothers. One afternoon in 1972, he and a friend went to see B.B. King at a local theatre. As fate would have it, King broke a guitar string while playing, and after changing it without missing a beat, he handed the broken string to young Tinsley. And yes, Tinsley still has that string.

Less than three years later, Ellis, already an accomplished teenaged musician, left Florida and moved to Atlanta. He soon joined a hard-driving local blues band, the Alley Cats. In 1981, along with veteran blues singer and harpist Chicago Bob Nelson, Tinsley formed The Heartfixers, a group that would become Atlanta’s top-drawing blues band. After cutting four Heartfixers albums (three for the Landslide label), Ellis was ready to step out on his own.

Georgia Blue, Tinsley’s first Alligator release, hit the unprepared public by surprise in 1988, as press and radio brought his music to more people than ever before. His next four releases—1989’s Fanning The Flames, 1992’s Trouble Time, 1994’s Storm Warning, and 1997’s Fire It Up—further grew his reputation as well as his audience. (His song A Quitter Never Wins, a highlight of Storm Warning, was recorded by Jonny Lang, selling almost two million copies.) Features and reviews ran in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and in many other national and regional publications. And he backed it all up performing hundreds of nights per year. Rolling Stone declared, “Feral blues guitar…non-stop gigging has sharpened his six-string to a razor’s edge…his eloquence dazzles…he achieves pyrotechnics that rival Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.”

In the early 2000s, Ellis released albums on Capricorn Records and on Telarc, returning to Alligator in 2005 with Live–Highwayman, which captured the fifth-gear energy of his roof-raising live show. He followed it with two more incendiary studio albums, 2007’s Moment Of Truth and 2009’s Speak No Evil. He self-released four successful albums on his own Heartfixer label before coming back home to Alligator in 2018. That year, he released the fan favorite Winning Hand, followed by 2020’s Ice Cream In Hell just before the pandemic sidelined all touring. With 2022’s Devil May Care, Ellis embarked on another relentless, coast-to-coast tour, further cementing his reputation as one of the most prolific and exciting blues rockers on the scene. On 2024’s Naked Truth and 2026’s Labor Of Love, Ellis swapped his blistering, guitar-fueled full band workouts for equally passionate, soul-searching acoustic folk blues.

Tinsley Ellis has delighted fans live in person in all 50 United States, as well as in Canada, across Europe, Australia and South America. He’s earned the love and respect of many of his fellow musicians, having shared stages with The Allman Brothers, Warren Haynes, Oliver Wood, Buddy Guy, the Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gov’t Mule, Widespread Panic, and more. Over the years, legends including Otis Rush, James Cotton, Gregg Allman, Jimmy Buffett, Son Seals, Koko Taylor and Albert Collins invited Ellis to join them on stage. Mega-star guitarist Joe Bonamassa calls Ellis “a national treasure.”

https://tinsleyellis.com/

RAY BONNEVILLE Only Ray Bonneville would consider thirty-seven years on the road, playing his songs in juke joints, bars, and concert halls around the world, the “safe choice.”

In 1990, Ray was working as a bush pilot in the Canadian wilderness when a flight went bad. Caught in dangerous conditions, he found himself flying beyond the limits of what instruments alone could tell him. He had to rely on instinct, flying by feel. He made it back to his home lake safely but shaken.

Ray stepped away from flying and holed up in an apartment in Montreal, where he began writing songs.

Thirty-seven years later, Ray Bonneville is still flying by feel. Still being guided by the instincts that served him so well as a pilot. His new self-titled album is a collection of songs from an artist who has spent a lifetime learning to trust the moment. Ray doesn't play or record to a click track. There’s a reason he’s been called a “song and groove” man. It’s all about the feel. For Ray, feel is everything.

Ray’s instinct has shaped a career unlike any other. Born in Quebec, Ray spent his first 12 years speaking only French. A move to Boston forced Ray to learn English. He started learning to play guitar around the same time. He spent the next couple of decades playing in bands and doing session work. Absorbing influences and developing his own style before ever writing a song. When Ray sat down in the apartment in Montreal and started writing songs, he already had a lifetime of stories to tell. Since then, Ray has released eleven albums, won Canada's Juno Award, earned two additional Juno nominations, claimed the solo title at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, and written songs recorded by artists including Jennifer Warnes, Ronnie Hawkins, and Slaid Cleaves. His own recordings have earned him a devoted audience across North America, Europe, and Australia, drawn to his unmistakable blend of blues, roots, and deeply human storytelling.

You can hear Ray’s instinct and feel driving every moment of this new album as well. The songs are built around Ray’s voice and guitar, captured live, with all the movement, tension, and subtle shifts that happen when a musician is following instinct rather than a metronome. Other instruments appear sparingly— drums, muted trumpet, Wurlitzer, piano, and Ray’s harmonica—but these elements are used like brushstrokes, adding color without ever distracting from the core performance.

The result is an intimate look at an artist completely in the moment, serving the songs. These songs breathe. They settle into the groove naturally. The words and music work together to tell Ray’s stories.

Across Ray Bonneville, his eleventh album, Ray follows the same path he has always followed: listening closely, trusting his instincts, and finding the story hidden inside the groove. His characters move through desire, loneliness, memory, and acceptance—from the longing of “Love That Never Was” to the hard-earned peace of “Worry No More.” These are songs about people carrying their histories with them, searching for connection, and learning to live with the roads they have traveled.

In “The Road,” Ray sings about a lifetime spent traveling from place to place and the possibility that someday the journey will end. But listening to this album, one thing is clear: Ray Bonneville is still in motion. Still flying by feel. Still chasing the groove. Still bringing us all home. raybonneville.com