Andy Cohen + Eleanor Ellis + William Lee Ellis

All three of the musicians here are noted performers all over the world, and this collection of classic songs and original numbers is a combination of all their individual and combined talents. It is also a delight from start to finish.
The music crosses from Old Time Blues to gospel, ragtime, ballads, Piedmont style, even country. The performances are sublime and there is a sense of joy, of delight in the music and of enjoying working together.
The songs here were written by as diverse a set of talents as Blind Blake, Scott Joplin, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Gene Autrey, Charlie Patton, Washington Phillips, even Robbie Burns(!), not to mention the songs written by the three musicians themselves (all of which fit seamlessly here), covering just about the whole canon of early Americana.

There is little point in picking out individual songs. The performances on every number are immaculate, the performers skilled and completely at ease with the music so that the whole album feels like a fireside jam. Andy Cohen, Eleanor Ellis and William Lee Ellis play in a natural style, all three acoustic guitarists with Cohen adding Mandola (an oversized mandolin) & Dolceola (essentially a zither with a keyboard) and William Lee Ellis playing 12 string and slide guitar – all three sing in different places. There are a number of special guests – Steve Feinbloom on bass, Fraser Speirs on harmonica, Julie Coffey vocal and Vernita Weller on vocal and tambourine – but essentially it is the three who offer up the delights.

The music is classic, but it also bears relevance today – complex simplicity in music that can be played without masses of electronic equipment and that can be played in the smallest or largest of venues.

I played the album from start to finish around half a dozen times before settling down to write this – just for the enjoyment of music that is played to the highest of standards but that offers the greatest delight. Simply marvellous.