By my friend Amy.
Ellen Cross should write a song about her music career to somehow chart the trajectory of her unpredictable journey. We witnessed her celebrated arrival in the Boston music scene with a Best of Boston award from Boston Magazine in 1992. And we heard her luminous songwriting and sensual vocals on the stage of Boston’s Orpheum Theater as she opened for Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega, and Bill Morrissey. We followed her as she played extensively in the New England folk scene under the management of Bob Donlin, owner of the famed Club Passim. Then her musical path diverged from the singer-songwriter scene.
Ellen formed the band Super 8, with David Champagne (Treat Her Right, Heygoods). They put out some singles and played shows in the Boston area. Next, she recorded a rock record that, alas, was never released. Then, she made the record over again on her own and released it independently. Bait & Ammo featured the cut ‘Still’, which was included on the 1998 compilation, This is Boston, Not Austin, Part 2.
Lots of gigging in Massachusetts and New York clubs followed. Playing in bands and solo, she made what one Northampton critic called ‘art rock’. She went west to Los Angeles in search of someone to help her make a record and wound up making lots of dbl chai soy lattes. Ellen returned to Massachusetts defeated and deflated but with a skill for making delicious hot drinks.
This is where Ellen’s path takes yet another abrupt turn.
She started writing obituaries–we kid you not–for the Berkshire Eagle newspaper in Pittsfield, Mass. Writing obituaries somehow led to web design, web design led back to Boston, to motherhood, and now back to singing and songwriting.
You should listen to how her journey has blissfully transformed her music.
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Selected Appearances
- The Middle East, Cambridge, MA
- The Bluebird Cafe, Nashville, TN
- CBGB’s Gallery, New York, NY
- The Sidewalk Cafe, New York, NY
- Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
- The Living Room, New York, NY
- The Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA
- The Me and Thee Coffeehouse, Marblehead, MA
- The Tin Angel Philadelphia, PA
- The Lizard Lounge, Cambridge, MA)
- Genghis Cohen, Los Angeles, CA
- Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
- Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA
- University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK
- Hendrix College, Conway, AK
- Salve Regina College, Newport, RI
Selected Openings and Shared Bills
- Bill Morrissey
- Suzanne Vega
- Patty Griffin
- Greg Brown
- John Gorka
- Dar Williams
- Shawn Colvin
Press
“[Ellen Cross' CD] Bait and Ammo, bluesy, hauntingly sexy, slightly dangerous, with great guitar and vocal dynamics.” — The Martha’s Vineyard Times
“[Ellen Cross] combines the fiery outspokenness and volatility of Ani DiFranco, the gorgeously sophisticated melodicism of The Story and the thundering sensuality of Tori Amos.” — Seth Rogovoy, The Berkshire Eagle
Discography
Solo recordings:
2009 The Birds Still Sing
1996 Bait & Ammo
1992 Photographs
Band recordings:
Super 8 : Single ‘Lovelight Projector’
Background vocals:
Bill Morrissey : Inside ‘Sandy’
Ellis Paul : Say Something ‘Blizzard’