Album Notes

NEWS FLASH AUGUST 9, 2007
Since its release by Sharx Music on April 27, 2007 "Sunset on the Sea", the hit single from the new Richard Ellers CD, "Love Songs, Ballads and Broadsides", continued its climb up the charts to #9 on the Adult Contemporary Chart FMQB with 897 spins on AC radio stations across the country. In recent weeks the song has been the fastest gainer on FMQB charts and and on the most added list 7 times.

THE NEW CD:

“Love Songs, Ballads and Broadsides” features original songs in an acoustic, finger-picking guitar style. In this endeavor Ellers is ably assisted by his good friend and recording engineer, John Girton, a superb guitarist, clarinetist and the original “Hot Lick” of Dan Hicks fame. Although the songs are entirely Richard’s, John collaborated in all aspects of the final product. The result is a folk-based album with a current adult contemporary twist.

GARY SNYDER REVIEW! August 18, 2006

“…What an expert guitarist and diverse songwriter you are. I enjoyed the whole thing, with its many turns and angles. And – reminding me/us of the primary ancient role of song and poetry, to speak to love, impermanence, joy and sorrow, and inevitable change. I salute you for keeping your muse alive!” Gary Snyder, Pulitzer Prize winning poet and environmentalist.

RICHARD ELLERS BIO:

Richard Ellers grew up following his petroleum engineer father to such diverse posts as Rome, London, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, where he lived for six years. While on a family vacation to Hawaii in the 1950’s he learned to play the ukulele from a hula dancer and got his hero Elvis Presley’s autograph in the hotel lobby. By the time he entered college the folk era was in full swing, and his new hero was Bob Dylan. He exchanged his four-string ukulele for the six-string Martin played on most of the songs in this album and was singing in his share of coffee houses and singles bars. However, his degree in Philosophy would not shield him from Viet Nam so he decided to enter law school. When Nixon invaded Cambodia in 1970, he helped his fellow law students shut down the university by singing “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” on the steps of Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. After a brief stint writing law books, he and his wife, Marcie moved to Nevada City, a small town in the Gold Country foothills of California where they lived in true hippie fashion -- without electricity and by growing vegetables. He intended to practice music, but with a baby on the way he soon discovered practicing law to be more lucrative. By several strange twists of fate he found himself handling real estate class actions. In 1979 he argued and won a leading case before the California Supreme Court that remains cited today.

For the last 30 years has been a successful lawyer in Nevada City where he and Marcie raised their three children (Sascha, Schuyler and Chloë) who now live varied lifestyles in disparate parts of the world. They have a new granddaughter, Naima. But music has always been part of his life. He has written over 100 songs. He received airplay for his anti-war song “American Kid on Arabian Sand” during the Gulf War on the Armed Services Network.

He releases this collection in part to share the best of his years of song writing and guitar playing with Naima. Some of the songs were written back in the 60’s, some were composed only recently. The title of the album sums up the variety of subject matter which sometimes draws on the untold tales and descents into the human condition he has witnessed in his profession. “Nevada City is a microcosm of the whole world with all its beauty, delights, foibles, catastrophes and disasters. As a lawyer, you see it all and sometimes you have to prove it,” says Richard, who designed and executed the cover art as well. This is an album those who like a good listen as much as they like a good read.