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 scene. After returning to Atlanta in 1967 she formed her own group, Fear Itself, moved to Woodstock, New York the album Fear Itself was released on Dot Records in 1969. In 1970 the group dissolved and Ellen began playing solo, recording Honky Tonk Angel in 1972 and We the People in 1973 for Polydor Records. In 1974 Polydor released a compilation, The Guitar Album of guitar players on the label: John McLaughlin, Link Wray, T Bone Walker, Rory Gallagher, Roy Buchannan, Ellen, etc. In 1975 Ellen lived in Montreal for a year and recorded The Real Ellen McIlwaine for Kot'ai/United Artists with members of the Ville Emard Blues Band on some cuts. Moving back to Atlanta, Ellen continued to tour solo sharing the bill with Laura Nyro, Howlin' Wolf, Son House, Weather Report, Lily Tomlin, Taj Mahal, George Thorogood, Tom Waits, Chicago, Bruce Springsteen, Koko Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Jeff Beck etc, etc. In 1978 Ellen McIlwaine was recorded in New York with John Lee & Gerry Brown and released on United Artists: a sort of "smooth ballads album" without much input from Ellen. In 1979 Ellen returned to the power trio format with a new solid body electric given to her by Guild Guitars. In 1980, her then manager Judy Keyserling financed Everybody Needs It, recorded in Chicago, featuring Jack Bruce (Cream) on bass & background vocals, Paul Wertico (Pat Metheney Band) on drums, Howard Levy on one piano cut, and released in 1982 on Blind Pig Records. Produced by Ellen, it won the 1982 NAIRD Award for Best Rock Album of the Year. Ellen's multi-cultural influences, her unique style of slide guitar, playing bass lines against driving rhythms and singing lead guitar lines, along with her powerfully moving vocals and scatting acrobatics had by this time earned her legendary cult status. She toured Australia in 1980 and '84, and in 1987 recorded Looking For Trouble in Toronto (for Stony Plain Records) where she took up residence, absorbing the reggae influences of Toots & the Maytals and various other Jamaican acts coming through Toronto, which is pleasingly apparent in her music. In 1990 Ellen played a series of concerts with her hero Johnny Winter and continued to tour North America using regional rhythm sections (bass & drums) from Vancouver, Calgary (where she moved in '92), Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Albany, New York. In 1996 the original albums The Real Ellen McIlwaine & Everybody Needs It were re-released on one CD on Stony Plain. In 1997 her first European tour was highlighted by the recording of her live performance at the women in (e)motion festival in Bremen, Germany. It was released as a CD entitled Ellen McIlwaine/women in (e)motion festival by Tradition & Moderne Musikproduktion, which features Randall Coryell on drums, and Leo Valvassori on bass, and contains Howl at the Moon along with other new material. Also in 1997 Ellen created a live musical score for the Tom Cone play True Mummy, drawing on Egyptian and Lebanese traditional dance music and the inspiration of Pakistani singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It distilled itself into her popular original Egyptian Blues. She completed sound scores for two films, one in Germany a documentary about the history of rockets and one in Canada called Confessions of a Snake Killer, appeared on the Celebration of Blues Collector Series and made guest appearances on various other artists' CDs. In 1998 Honky Tonk Angel & We the People were released on one CD for Polygram Chronicles (now Universal) as Up From the Skies: The Polydor Years. The majority of her catalogue is now in print. Irish DJ David Holmes released a remix of Ellen's rendition of the Stevie Wonder tune Higher Ground on his Essential Mix and in 1999 Fat Boy Slim sampled the guitar intro from her same recording for his composition Song for Lindy, causing some controversy but reaching a generous settlement out of court with Stony Plain and Ellen. Also in 1999 a one hour documentary on her life and musical background entitled A Slide Through Time: Ellen McIlwaine Live! was filmed and aired on Bravo Channel. In November 2000, Tradition & Moderne recorded Ellen's next album Spontaneous Combustion at Seattle's Ironwood Studios with Taj Mahal's Rhythm Ambassadors Bill Rich on bass and Kester Smith on drums, featuring Taj Mahal himself singing on two cuts. In April of 2001 Ellen recorded with Mondo Grosso, the Japanese Electronica group produced by Electronica Master, Shinichi Osawa. The disc was released on Sony Music Japan and is called Don't Let Go which is also the title of the song Ellen wrote the lyrics and melody for, and features her vocal acrobatics. Two other cuts are included: an instrumental version of the title cut and another Osawa instrumental called Indian Song. In June & July 2001 Ellen toured Germany, Switzerland and Austria opening for Taj Mahal and his Hula Blues Band returning in December with Bill Rich and Kester Smith as her own rhythm section for a tour of Germany and Switzerland. In November 2001 she re-recorded Born Under a Bad Sign which was sent to Japan and Yukihiro Fukutomi added his electronic expertise, changing the song into a Dance-mix for Kei Kobayashi's album Routine, released for Soul Source on Polydor-Universal-Japan. In February 2002 Ken Yanai of Soul Source brought Ellen, Kester and Bill to Tokyo and recorded a live album also for Polydor-Universal-Japan called Live at Yellow, at dance club Space Lab Yellow with special guest Kayoko Kimura on saxophone. Ellen toured the dance clubs with Kei-san and Yanai-san doing a solo set between their DJ sets in four cities across Japan. It was Ellen's first trip back since her childhood! In 2003 friend Margret RoadKnight arranged a hugely successful concert tour of New Zealand and Australia with herself as the opening act for Ellen. Still touring Canada & the US, Ellen had two successful hip replacements in 2004 and 2005. In 2004, having returned to her acoustic guitar, she searched for an authentic, classically trained Tabla player and found the brilliant Cassius Khan: their great collaboration began. 2005 started with the Blues in the Schools program and the Alberta Scene concerts in Ottawa, then several Canadian Festival appearances with Cassiius Khan. After two months' solo touring in the US Ellen returned to her beloved Japan in December, appearing as the live segment of DJ Yanai San's show in Osaka and Fukuoka in support of the release of their collaboration Toe Hold on Soul Source/Universal Japan. In 2006 Ellen wrote the lyrics and sang them on the track Reflections for Robb Scott's Afro Odyssey. A compilation of women guitar players put together by Sue Foley, called Blues Guitar Women on Ruf Records featuring Ellen's Dead End Street lead to Sue and Ellen with Roxanne Potvin and Rachelle Van Zanten touring to sold-out crowds in Alberta and Ontario 2006. Another compilation of women guitar players put together by Patty Larkin called La Guitara featuring Ellen's Sidu was released on Vanguard Records and Ellen toured across the US in March 2007 with Patty & Badi Assad. In October 2007 a further tour with Sue Foley's Guitar Women featuring Sue, Ellen, Roxanne, Rachelle & Romy Mayes played to sold out theatres across Alberta & B.C.. After a full schedule of appearances with Cassius Khan at various Canadian Music Festivals, Ellen took the plunge in October of 2006 and started her own record label, Ellen McIlwaine Music, celebrating the release of her long-awaited new CD Mystic Bridge, featuring Cassius Khan on Tablas and vocals, Galitcha's Linsey Wellman on Soprano Sax on three cuts, and Amika Kushwaha on Harmonium on the last cut. Recorded in Calgary at Night Deposit Studios and mixed at Stu Goldberg Studios in Penticton, it has received glowing reviews to go with the standing ovations at their live appearances. It is distributed by Festival Distribution Inc. in Canada and by City Hall Records in the US, and is for sale from Ellen's website: a third printing is already scheduled for January 2008. Her autogiography is still a work in progress, looking back over forty-plus years of hard times in the beginning, backstage anecdotes, heroes & mentors, milestones of progress and wonderful friendships... 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