Ellen Mcillwaine

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Ellen McIlwaine's background is diverse. Born in Nashville, Tennessee and adopted by Southern Presbyterian Missionaries, she spent fifteen years in Japan as part of a small international community attending Canadian Academy in Kobe. She began playing rock & roll piano at age five, listening to New Orleans-style rhythmn & blues (Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Professor Longhair), Latino groups like Trio Los Panchos, Japanese Classical and Folk music, & American Jazz on Japanese radio and Country & European Classical music on US Armed Forces Radio. She also sang in the school and church choirs. Returning in 1963 to North America with her parents, Ellen attended college for two years in Tennessee and then art school in Atlanta while absorbing the music of Tina Turner, Gladys Knight, BB King, Otis Span, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Bobbie Bland, the Isley Brothers, James Brown, the Mighty Clouds of Joy and other Rhythm & Blues and Gospel groups. It was here she bought her first guitar and began appearing in Atlanta clubs. In 1966, encouraged by folk singer Patrick Sky she went to Greenwich Village, bought from Guild Guitars the "loaner" steel-stringed acoustic used by Mississippi John Hurt and Richie Havens among others during their repairs, and met Richie, Dave Van Ronk and Odetta, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy & Junior Wells, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, etc. From the Blue Flames who backed up John Hammond she met Jimi Hendrix and they became friends, playing and struggling on the New York

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