Search - Jeff Ellis :: The Forgetting Place

Huntington, WV native Jeff Ellis is currently serving his second tour of duty in the Middle East as a member of the United States Army Reserves, a role he assumed in 1998. On breaks from serving in his combat support and sustainment battalion, Ellis used his free time to put the finishing touches on "The Forgetting Place," his fourth CD of roots rock, Americana and contemporary folk and his first on New York based label NewSong Recordings. Ellis, a Marshall University honor student on the GI Bill and just three semesters away from receiving a bachelor's degree in psychology, had just completed recording the album before getting the call that he'd been once again activated for duty. Ellis has appeared on National Public Radio's Mountain Stage two times over the last several years. "Jeff first caught my attention because there was a toughness about his vocals and songs that transcended artifice. He's grown into a singer and songwriter whose music has a powerful, almost visceral effect. Maybe it comes from the same place that makes him a soldier. Maybe it grew out of his West Virginia roots. It's not a quality you can buy or learn. I hope he never loses it." -- Larry Groce, Host & Artistic Director, NPR's Mountain Stage. Ellis will be spending his two week March 'Rest and Relaxation' leave touring to promote the CD's official release. Ellis plans to tour continuously in support of the album upon completing his tour of duty in August. The Forgetting Place was written and recorded on the heels of his third CD "Covering the Distance," and can be considered a sequel of sorts. The record was engineered and produced by Athens, Ohio's Eddie Ashworth (Sublime, Pennywise), and the studio band -- led by fellow Huntington, WV music luminary Bud Carroll -- returned to back its longtime colleague. The Forgetting Place is a character-driven body of work. It explores the nuances and uncertainties of human relationships, and the vast and complex range of emotions involved. The songs' protagonists are as disparate as an aging widower and a homeless victim of love, all sharing in the uncomfortable state of being somewhere -- physically, spiritually, mentally -- that they wish they could forget. The songs on Ellis' two previous records -- Covering the Distance and A Front Seat for the End of the World -- were written at the same time. "The material felt like two completely different albums to me," states Ellis. "Where 'Front Seat' focused more on the Iraq war and how it affected me and the people around me, 'Covering the Distance' was simply me remembering times spent with my family and friends back home. For 'The Forgetting Place,' I tried to continue writing about the people and places around me, but I kept finding myself in the songs. I was going through a bad break up at the time, so I was drawn to characters that were, like me, trying to forget. In trying to forget my situation, I found myself at the end of a record. I guess the tie that binds the records and songs together is that there's a little bit of me in each character. Ellis is the winner of the 2008 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, one of the premier showcases of emerging performing songwriters in North America. "Jeff is both a gifted songwriter and deeply engaging performer," says NewSong Recordings president and Mountain Stage NewSong Contest director Gar Ragland. "I became a fan after his performance in the 2008 NewSong Contest finals competition, and even more so after listening to his previous recordings. When Jeff played me the mixes to the 'Forgetting Place,' I knew we wanted to be involved in helping him get this record out to the audience it deserves."