Robert Ellis takes the piano for a ride
Country musician puts down guitar to put a new spin on Texana sound
A straight and easy path rested before Robert Ellis. He simply could’ve made sad, honky-tonk songs, mixed in a few classics by the old heroes of the style, and enjoyed life as a young preservationist of a form that doesn’t have much value in country music anymore.
But over the past 10 years, Ellis has proven more adventurer than historian. His “The Great Rearranger” album was a quiet thing built entirely around his voice, words and guitar playing. “Photographs” mixed a hardedged country with a moody progressive folk music. And “The Lights From the Chemical Plant” and “Robert Ellis” put an emphasis on dark tones and textures, without much care for the rigid rules of genre.
His fifth album, “Texas Piano Man,” is another venture entirely, one that finds him putting down the guitar and, true to the title, manning the keys, a Texana play on ’70s piano man trope that counted Elton John, Billy Joel, Leon Russell and Randy Newman among its practitioners. With it, Ellis gets to sort of blur the line between person and persona, stepping out in a white tuxedo with Liberace flair and aplomb.
Wednesday he’ll play a set at Cactus Music, which for
now will be the only hometown show for the record’s release, though he’s almost certain to be back before long. He talked a little about the songs and the difficulties maintaining the Texas Piano Man’s attire.
Q: There’s a line in the opening track, “you make me want to tear the world in two.” Is that a colloquialism I missed? Or is that something you came up with?
A: I don’t think it was anything I’d heard before. It just popped into my head and seemed like good imagery. And it underscores what the song is about. The verses are a little bit of a false setup to get to the punchline. The first verse is I’m crazy, I act crazy, then it’s you’re crazy. But that’s not what the song is about. It’s about how falling in love is crazy. That feeling when you fall for somebody is intense. It makes you feel really far out there. So that line seemed to fit. You’re so crazy in love you want to tear the world in two.
Q: Did you get much pushback from having an opening song titled “(Expletive) Crazy”?
A: Not too much. I really wanted it to be the first one just because I wanted to come out swinging. I found it doesn’t really work to try and hide the challenging stuff in the context of the less challenging stuff. People on all sides of this business will tell you that. Get people hooked and then completely betray them with the other material. That never worked for me, that idea of encasing the weird stuff inside pop music. … You can’t hide who you are. So I’m coming out front and center: “This is me, with all the flaws.” It’s more about asking forgiveness than permission.
Q: It’s hard to hide in a white tuxedo.
A: That’s true. I feel like so much of this record is like hiding in plain sight. But the minute you step on stage in a white tux, people are primed to hear what you’re doing in a different way. But I’m excited to have these new songs, like “Passive Aggressive,” “Nobody Smokes Anymore” and “Topo Chico.” I never really had songs like them before.
Q: Has it proven a challenge keeping the tuxedo clean?
A: Oh, my god, it’s a real dilemma. I only have the one white tux right now. I have to get another. But it also has to match perfectly. I plan on wearing it at every show. There’s an old theater trick, you spill some vodka on the armpits for the smell. But then you smell like vodka. You’d think if you drink as much as I do, the sweat would have a sterilizing effect.
Q: Saying “Topo Chico” reminds me of Roger Miller sounds obvious …
A: But he’s one of my big heroes. He’s such a singular weird writer. Nobody else sounds like him. That he can go from “Do Wacka Do” into “Husbands and Wives.” It’s crazy. And it’s all Roger Miller. I think that’s a better way to be remembered. I don’t want any of the (expletive) tragic songwriter glory. That doesn’t do anything for me. If you think of me after I’m gone, remember me smiling. That’s what I’m doing on “Topo Chico.” A silly song that connects is just as valid as something that reaches somebody in a trying time.