robert ellis

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Website: https://texaspianoman.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertellismusic
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tEXAS PIANO MAN (2019)

Album Cover - Photography by Alexandra Valenti, Art Direction by PreacherDownload 300 DPI JPG — Album Cover - Photography by Alexandra Valenti, Art Direction by Preacher
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PRESS PHOTOS

PRAISE FOR TEXAS PIANO MAN

Best Country & Americana Albums of 2019 - Rolling Stone
“Ellis has always attacked his instruments with both mastery and reckless abandon, and he engaged the piano like a sparring partner, pounding out songs like his green juice-era lament ‘Nobody Smokes Anymore’ and ‘Passive Aggressive’ with so much passion that Lady Gaga would be jealous.”

20 Best Country & Americana Albums of 2019 - Paste Magazine
”Texas Piano Man is exactly what it sounds like: a cross between country-blues and piano-pop. Ellis surely knows his way around the keys, and his fifth studio album is funny, frank and alive. It’s a storyful, self-realized album that also happens to be a hell-of-a good time to listen to.”

Best Country Albums of 2019 - Vinyl Me Please
“Robert Ellis recasts himself from an alt-country guitar-slinging troubadour to a white-suited, top-hatted barroom pianist making an album full of jaunty stompers about growing up and growing sobe and acerbic, affecting love songs. Seeing him tear down a set at SXSW was one of my live music highlights of 2019, and this record is a perfect companion for all the turns 365 days can throw at you.

Best Albums of 2019 - AllMusic
“The singer/songwriter takes a welcome left turn that brings him toward eccentric Nilsson territory. 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

#3 on “The 20 Best Americana Albums of 2019” - PopMatters
”...the Lone Star native's most moving and nuanced record to date.”

“The Best Texas Music of 2019” - Texas Monthly

“Dressed head to heels in a white tuxedo, Robert Ellis has now fully embraced his role as Texas troubadour, putting a little Gram Parsons-style honky-tonk into the bedazzled piano-pop of Elton John” - NPR Music

"Only the truly exceptional artists, with the right mix of confidence and wit - Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Tom Waits—dare to scrap the template that first won them acclaim and basically start over, with a new, often sideways approach to their craft. That’s exactly what Texas native Robert Ellis has done with his latest album, Texas Piano Man." - Men's Journal

"In an arrangement filled with oohs and ahhs that cross both Abbey and Yellow Brick roads, Ellis posits our hearts' toil in the everyday insanity of the world, so that maybe the only sane approach to life is recklessly falling in love.” - NPR Music

“...on his forthcoming album, Texas Piano Man, he dives deeply into a new persona: a white-suited, blue bonnet Elton John determined to challenge expectations of what it means to be a musician residing in the Lone Star State.” - Rolling Stone Country

“Ellis can do shit kicking honky-tonk just as well as he can inhabit an ivory-tickling Lone Star State of Mind." - Rolling Stone Country

“Ellis loses none of his sharp eye for storytelling or emotional nuance on this, his fifth release for New West Records. But he adds a wisecracking edge that allows his airy tenor to become richer and more expressive with his newfound penchant for humor. In other words, it’s a lot of fun.” - Rolling Stone Country

“Texas Piano Man...is pure raucous fun, eleven tunes that demand to be played at full volume while dancing around the shuffleboard table at your favorite dive.” - Texas Monthly

“On Texas Piano Man, Ellis displays his mastery by blending the barrelhouse stylings of pioneering Texas musician Moon Mullican with the staccato rhythms of Elton John. The resulting sound feels like it would be at home in both a West Texas saloon and a Long Island piano bar.” - Texas Monthly

"Will this be the record that breaks Ellis through to the masses? Who knows. But it should be." - Austin American Statesman

"Bennie and the Jets' via Abbey Road." - Relix Magazine

“Is this guy the Texas David Bowie?” - The Texas Standard, Texas Public Radio

"You can almost count the number of successful singer-songwriter piano men on the fingers of both hands. There's Elton John of course, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, Joe Jackson, Leon Russell, Randy Newman, digging back to Burton Cummings of the Guess Who...perhaps some others, but you get the gist. Few from Texas, though, have gone there. Robert Ellis is changing that.” - American Songwriter

"It’s brilliant, fearless songwriting and performing from an artist who has honed a truly distinct voice and persona." - No Depression

"His creeping inclination toward the piano and a shinier, classic pop sound has culminated in a cohesive concept record that finds him no longer just trying on a brand new suit, but wearing the hell out of it." - No Depression

"Ellis proves to be a grand pop master. This, albeit somewhat surprising, is his most cohesive album to date." - Glide Magazine

"This is a majestic pop album that, with tunes like “He Made me Do It,” could have been made by a pop master like Billy Joel. Instead of a New York state of mind, we get Ellis’ Lone Star state of mind, which in many places doesn’t feel that different." - Glide Magazine