Ellis Paul at McCabe’s, 9-28-19 Concert Review

Ellis Paul is currently touring the west coast, and last night delivered an excellent set at McCabe’s in Santa Monica. He focused on material from his new album, The Storyteller’s Suitcase, and in fact actually told the crowd early in the set that he wouldn’t be playing the old songs. “I am here to play new songs,” he told them. “I know a lot of you want to hear the old songs. I’m not going to do it, and I just want you to know that up front. There will be no refunds. Now listen, the reason why I’m doing that is because I’ve been doing this for thirty years, and I feel like my best stuff is yet to come.” That’s great for someone like me who is always eager to hear new material from my favorite artists. And indeed, most of the set was made up of new material, songs from his twentieth album. It was probably the only show I’ve seen him do in many years that did not include either “3,000 Miles” or “Maria’s Beautiful Mess.”

After a really good opening set by Darryl Purpose (with David James joining him on mandolin), Ellis Paul took the stage at 8:45 p.m., kicking off his set with “I Ain’t No Jesus,” a sweet song, and one that I love more each time I hear it. He has been opening his shows with it for a while, and it really is a great way to start the night, setting a loving tone. It is also the song that he chose to lead off the album. McCabe’s is one of my favorite spots in Los Angeles to see live music, and it is a favorite place for musicians to play. “I love this place,” Ellis said after “I Ain’t No Jesus.” “It’s partly because of you,” he told the audience, “but I think it’s because I buy guitars here, and I end up spending more than I make at a show.” He also thanked a couple that had sent a bottle of excellent Scotch to him backstage before the concert. “Thank you for that. You’ve ruined the show, but thank you.” He then described the time in Big Sur that provided the inspiration for “Slingshot.” Ellis played harmonica on both “I Ain’t No Jesus” and “Slingshot.”

“Five Alarm Fire On The 4th Of July” is always a fun one to hear, and last night in particular was enjoyable, for the crowd got really into it. In fact, one woman finished a line for Ellis. The line is “Uncle Buck is rolling somethin’ he calls a monster doobie,” and he draws out the last two words, “mon-ster doo-bie.” A woman finished the line by singing “bie.” “Thank you,” Ellis said to her. The audience also sang along with the “We Are Family” section at the end. While he offered introductions to most of the songs in his set, Ellis just jumped right into “Election Day” without a single word of introduction. It was a good rendition, and a song that the audience appreciated. We are all eager for the next election and the end of this corrupt and incompetent administration. He followed that with another timely and powerful song, “The Battle Of Charlottesville,” and then “The Innocence And The Afterlife,” one of my personal favorites from the new album. It is a song inspired by a conversation he had with his daughter when she was five years old, a conversation about death. After those songs, Ellis promised the audience the music would be happy from there on out. “Well, that’s a lie,” he corrected himself after a moment. “It’s folk music.” Yet the next song was a happy song. He delivered a great, mean, fiery rendition of “Kick Out The Lights,” with audience participation, of course. This was the first song of the set that was not from the new album, but it was after that one that he showed the audience the contents of the deluxe edition of The Storyteller’s Suitcase.

Ellis then switched to piano for a really good and passionate version of “Scarecrow In A Corn Maze.” He followed that with a couple of tracks from The Hero In You, one of Ellis Paul’s children’s albums, first mentioning that he would be doing a children’s show in the morning. He started with “Thomas Edison,” and followed that with the title track, which was actually a request and dedicated to a guy in the audience who was celebrating his birthday. Ellis stepped off the stage to perform it unmiked in the audience. Interestingly, he followed that with “You’ll Never Be This Young Again,” perhaps a perfect song for someone having a birthday, a song reminding us that it’s not too late to chase our dreams, and urging us to start now. He concluded his set with “The World Ain’t Slowin’ Down.” “It’s my most well-known song, and it’s also about not wasting time,” Ellis said in the introduction to the song. He performed this one unmiked and in the audience, the crowd singing it with him. And that was how the concert ended. There was no encore. The show ended at 10:11 p.m.

Set List

1. I Ain’t No Jesus
2. Slingshot
3. Five Alarm Fire On The 4th Of July
4. Election Day
5. The Battle Of Charlottesville
6. The Innocence And The Afterlife
7. Kick Out The Lights
8. Scarecrow In A Corn Maze
9. Thomas Edison
10. The Hero In You
11. You’ll Never Be This Young Again
12. The World Ain’t Slowin’ Down

McCabe’s is located at 3101 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica, California.