Ellis Paul: Best of the 2010s, Rebecca Loebe Opens

Ellis Paul doesn’t just write songs; he’s a guitar-carrying reporter who covers the human condition and details the hopes, loves, losses of those he observes, turning their stories into luminous pieces of music that get under your skin and into your bloodstream. Paul weaves deeply personal experiences with social issues and renders them as provocative works that are as timely as they are timeless.

Born and raised in Maine, Paul attended Boston College on a track scholarship and in the evenings became a fixture on the city’s open mic circuit. After winning a Boston Acoustic Underground songwriter competition, he caught the ear of folk luminary Bill Morrissey, who produced his indie album Say Something in 1993. This led to a seven-album contract with Rounder Records and the 1994 album, Stories.

Over the past decade, Austin-based troubadour Rebecca Loebe has been steadily building her audience the old fashioned way: driving hundreds of thousands of miles in an old station wagon, performing in listening rooms and theaters across the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, and the UK. During her last radio interview in England, an announcer for the BBC declared “Your voice should be available for free on the National Health!”