Live from the Boileryard: Robert Ellis + Brother Oliver

Join us at Camp North End on Friday, April 7 for a FREE show featuring Robert Ellis. Music starts at 6pm with Brother Oliver.

This is the Texas Piano Man who made “Texas Piano Man,” a record that nods at its honky tonk roots set by a guitarist as he finds more room to roam while playing a stationary instrument and pulls from a tradition set by Billy Joel, Leon Russell and Elton John. Guys who sat at that large stationary instrument, and plinked away at it in a manner that balanced honesty and mythology.

Ellis’ play on this trope focuses on his Texas, which contains multitudes, a space so broad and wide open that it can contain the caricatures and archetypes seen from the rather narrow view so often taken from the outside, as well as the artists, oddballs and freaks who populate its many crannies. He knows the roadside attractions and the favored drinks and foods. That’s how one ends up with a song called “Topo Chico.”