Tinsley Ellis
Saturday, March 21, 2026 at 7:00PM
Join us Saturday March 21 at 7:00pm, as we welcome a true blues rock legend, called an “Atlanta Blues Icon” and a “Road Warrior,” due to his extensive touring and blues mastery. Tickets can be purchased directly from this page; if any tickets remain at show time, they will be $5–$10 higher at the gate.
Ellis delivers a powerful punch of deep roots blues and wicked guitar prowess…Hold on to your hat and get ready for a foot-stomping, raucous and raw good time…a joyous and triumphant celebration of acoustic music. You’ll feel it down to the bone.
— Living Blues
Atlanta-based musician Tinsley Ellis—known for decades as one of the greatest electric blues-rock guitarists of his generation—is now also recognized as one of the very best contemporary acoustic blues guitarists, songwriters, and performers in the world. With 2024’s critically acclaimed and Blues Music Award-nominated Naked Truth, Ellis unplugged with his first-ever acoustic album. On it he mixed his own striking original songs — inspired by Son House, Skip James, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters — with a few reinvented covers. According to No Depression, “Even though it’s just Ellis and his acoustic guitars, there’s plenty of hell-raisin’ blues going on. With the ghost of Elmore James looking over his shoulder and Wolf leaning in…Ellis proves he’s an icon.”
Glorious, raw and propulsive acoustic blues…Ellis’ resonant, crystal-clear baritone delivers chilling lyrics like an Old Testament prophet accompanied by an unruly slide guitar…killer vocals and biting, dazzling guitar work.
— AllMusic
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Georgia Blue, Tinsley’s first Alligator release, hit the unprepared public by surprise in 1988, as press and radio brought his music to more people than ever before. His next four releases—1989’s Fanning The Flames, 1992’s Trouble Time, 1994’s Storm Warning, and 1997’s Fire It Up—further grew his reputation as well as his audience. (His song A Quitter Never Wins, a highlight of Storm Warning, was recorded by Jonny Lang, selling almost two million copies.) Features and reviews ran in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and in many other national and regional publications. And he backed it all up performing hundreds of nights per year. Rolling Stone declared, “Feral blues guitar…non-stop gigging has sharpened his six-string to a razor’s edge…his eloquence dazzles…he achieves pyrotechnics that rival Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.”
Stripped down and raw, rousing and surprising…gruff unembellished vocals…glistening melodies fingerpicked with delicacy…so genuine it seems like a lost recording from decades ago.
—Blues Music Magazine
Select your seats right on this page and join us on Saturday March 21 at 7:00pm, at “The Roots Music Palace of the Ozarks,” Harrison’s historic 1929 Lyric Theater, as we welcome a true master of blues-rock, Tinsley Ellis!
Anthony gnomes has played here before and says that he has contacted you about playing at the lyric again but has received no reply from you. I would love to see him again. He was great.