Winter / Spring Concerts at The Lord’s New Church
( Archives of Past Concerts )

Singer Ellis Paul
Presented by Common Grounds Concerts
At The Lord’s New Church Social Hall

> Evening Concert 
with RYAN TENNIS opening
Friday, Sept 10, 2010 - @ 8:00 p.m.
Tickets: $ $25

The LNC Social Hall is an acoustically rich, intimate room situated on a 90 acre estate which is surrounded on three sides by protected wilderness. Come early to take a relaxing and peaceful walk, or enjoy a game of Frisbee and a picnic on our open field, meditate in our gardens, walk along the creek, or play on our swings before the show. Then join us for what promises to be another exceptional night of music with Ellis Paul!

Venue is smoke and alcohol-free.
Healthy, organic food and drink for sale before and after
the performance.
Plenty of free parking.


> Children's Concert 
Saturday, Sept 11, 2010 - 11:00 a.m.
Doors Open @10:30 a.m.
performing songs from...   The Dragonfly Races
Tickets: $5 child / $10 adult / $25 whole family

The Dragonfly Races offers true family listening which works on many levels. The songs evoke a fanciful world where dragonflies race in the meadow and chameleons march on Washington, DC. The lyrics take listeners on a socially conscious adventure, empowering them to stand up against injustice. While the lyrics deal with serious concepts, there is plenty of whimsy and fun too.

For More Information and Reservation 215-947-3262  ext. 7
or
www.commongroundconcerts.com
or  Buy Ticket online >  www.eventbrite.com

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Ellis Paul is one of the leading voices in American songwriting. He was a principle leader in the wave of singer/songwriters that emerged from the Boston folk scene, creating a movement that revitalized the national acoustic circuit with an urban, literate, folk pop style that helped renew interest in the genre in the 1990's. 

His charismatic, personally authentic performance style has influenced a generation of artists away from the artifice of pop, and closer towards the realness of folk. Though he remains among the most pop-friendly of today's singer-songwriters - his songs regularly appear in hit movie and TV soundtracks - he has bridged the gulf between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger more successfully than perhaps any of his songwriting peers.

Yet to hear him at this crossroads moment in his career, you would think he was just getting started. For years, he has been among the folk circuit's most popular and dependable headliners, with a mailing list of over 20,000 fiercely loyal fans. He has released 14 CDs, and recently explored new media avenues with a documentary/concert DVD called "3,000 Miles," and "Notes from the Road," a critically acclaimed book of poems and stories.

In recent years, he has also departed from his solo career to tour and record with longtime compadre Vance Gilbert, and to indulge his deep respect for American folk icon Woody Guthrie. He appeared with the all-star Guthrie tribute tour, "Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway." For his Philo CD, "The Speed of Trees," he wrote a modern musical setting of Guthrie's unpublished lyric "God's Promise."

Nora Guthrie, Woody's daughter, invited Paul to to perform at a Woody Guthrie tribute show held in September 1996 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The show was part of a 10-day celebration to honor Woody and also included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg and others. In 1998, the quintessential Boston songwriter was also made an honorary citizen of Guthrie's birthplace, Okemah, Oklahoma, in recognition of all he has done to revive interest in the Dust Bowl troubadour.

This may surprise casual fans of Paul's urbane, literate and thoroughly modern folk-pop sound - but not those who knew him well. Among the first to single him out from the vast pack clamoring to rise from Boston's open mics in the early '90s was Bill Morrissey, even then considered the definitive New England ballad writer. He was so impressed, he produced Paul's first record, "Say Something," in 1993.

What did he see, so early in Paul's career? "He was always unique," Morrissey recalls. "He didn't write like anybody, didn't sing like anybody, didn't perform like anybody. So many of the songwriters then were trying to imitate whoever they thought was successful. Ellis was always himself; he didn't try to separate himself from his audiences. Perhaps it's because he's a Mainer; there's no pretense, and I think audiences sense that."

Paul is today regarded as such a classic urban songwriter that it's hard to fathom what a small-town boy he was. He grew up in northern Maine, in a potato farming community so remote that his exposure to music came almost entirely from the one top-40 station he could get on his radio, and his school band, where he played trumpet well enough to earn a summer scholarship to the Berklee College of Music..