PRESS RELEASE: Legendary Georgia Musician Tinsley Ellis Celebrates New Release with Live Performances in Macon!

“Ellis delivers a powerful punch of deep roots blues and wicked guitar...a foot-stomping, raucous good time...a joyous and triumphant celebration of acoustic music. You’ll feel it down to the bone.”

--Living Blues

“Glorious, raw and propulsive acoustic blues...killer vocals and biting, dazzling guitar work.”

--AllMusic

“Stripped down and raw...gruff, unembellished vocals...glistening melodies fingerpicked with delicacy…so genuine it seems like a long lost recording.”

--Blues Music Magazine

Atlanta-based blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Tinsley Ellis will celebrate the January 30 release of his new Alligator Records album, Labor Of Love, with two live solo acoustic performances at the Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon on Thursday, January 29, 2026. Labor Of Love is his second acoustic album (after 2024’s Blues Music Award-nominated Naked Truth), and first acoustic album to contain all original material.

Performance information is as follows:

Date: Thursday, January 29, 2026

Venue: Capricorn Sound Studios

Address: 540 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

City: Macon, GA

Phone: 478-257-5327

Showtimes: 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm

Ticket price: $36.53

Website: https://capricorn.mercer.edu/

*See website for complete performance information

Official video for “Hoodoo Woman”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uMYeNU2MaQ

With Labor Of Love, Ellis delivers a raw, edgy, self-produced set of 13 original compositions, all performed with pure, emotional honesty. The songs spin modern tales of floods, conflagrations, voodoo spirits, personal travails and heaven-sent prayers. From the feral opener “Hoodoo Woman” to the John Lee Hooker-groove of “Long Time” to the evocative, Skip James-inspired “To A Hammer” to the Son House-style stomp of “Sunnyland,” Ellis inhabits his songs in a way that is simply astonishing.

Each performance carries the weight, experience and hard-earned wisdom Ellis learned over four decades on the road, making Labor Of Love as profoundly deep and moving as any music he has made in his career. It covers the gamut of emotions, finding good times in the hard times, mixing gentle beauty with foot-pounding ferocity.

During a break from the recording of the new album, Ellis spent time in Bentonia, Mississippi, birthplace of Skip James and home to blues legend Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. Ellis soaked up the spirit of this tiny Delta town, hanging out with Holmes and getting a deep insight into genuine Bentonia blues. Later, Ellis performed with Holmes at his famous Blue Front Café, soaking up every moment. “Once I got home,” notes Ellis, “I went right back to the studio and incorporated everything that I just experienced into my music.”

Since the 2024 release of Naked Truth, Ellis has been travelling on his own, performing solo all over the country in his jokingly named “Two Guitars And A Car” tour. For Ellis, playing solo, acoustic blues has helped him tap into the raw essence of the music. “I love doing these shows,” Ellis says, with plans to continue touring solo for the foreseeable future. “No matter what I play, I like to have an edge. For me, just playing this music is a labor of love. I sat at the feet of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf. I got into this music because of them. I always told myself if I could just make a living playing the blues, I’d be, at least in my own mind, successful.”

Premier Guitar believes he’s more than reached that goal, declaring, “Ellis is a legend of American blues music...he’s an American music treasure. He delivers a sermon on the power and glory of the blues, and is one of modern blues’ greatest performers.”