It's the nature of any art form to change and grow over time; one adherent evolves and makes it their own, appreciative of the influence while also seeking a more personal form of expression.
And so it is with Ellen McIlwaine, now unbelievably well preserved at 62 years old, firmly ensconced as a legend on the singer songwriter circuit with 11 major CDs behind her.
McIlwaine's diverse approach to slide guitar is only surprising until her roots are considered. The adopted daughter of Southern Presbyterian missionaries, she grew up in Japan, Tennessee and Greenwich Village in the late 50s through to the free love era of the late 1960s.
"I'm sure it's growing up and listening to all those musical styles that have given me the approach I have.
It's why I tune the guitar the way I do (she prefers a series of distinct tunings, including in octaves of c) from listening to Japanese music, Arabic music and all of the different instruments."
By the late 60's, she was playing small clubs and coffee houses in the Atlanta, Ga. area. Encouraged to pursue her music on a larger stage by folk singer Patrick Sky, McIlwaine moved to Greenwich Village in 1966 and bought one of several beloved Guild acoustics, a former company loaner previously used by artists such as Mississippi John Hurt and Richie Havens. She became tight friends with Jimi Hendrix before he moved to the UK.
By 1973 she was on Polydor Records, having established a formidable reputation as a guitarist with her band Fear Itself. She toured with Howlin' Wolf, Son House, Taj Mahal, George Thorogood and countless others. She's maintained a devoted following ever since, touring around the globe and releasing a handful of critically acclaimed discs, many with a strong focus on world music, in the same vein as Ry Cooder. These days, she works with tabla drummer Cassius Kjan.
"I'm lucky enough to find someone like Cassius who's trained in Tabla and vocal since the age of eight years old and has also been exposed to fund and R&B and all of that stuff," she notes. "So he has his own approach."
That's a big deal to her: McIlwaine takes the artistic high road with respect to why music changes; her sound has often been described as blending blues and world music, but she's as likely to find the roots of a song in Arabic or Indian music as African American.
"I'd like to think that every song I play has an individual style, in that part of my longetivity is that I don't stick with one thing and always do what I'm used to ."
But McIlwaine has lived in Calgary, AB since 1992, which has always had a well-established arts and blues scene but is hardly New York in terms of getting attention; and she concedes her commercial output is not what it could be for the simple reason that records companies aren't artists.
Ellen McIlwaine