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Ronny Elliott
I met Ronny when we were on the same bill for some shows in Germany in 1999, both of us were staying at the Hansa hotel in Mettman. He was playing a pre-festival warm-up show in the hotel bar the evening that I I arrived in town.
As I recall he was using a white Gibson J200 acoustic guitar and singing those wonderful ballads he writes; 'Tell the King the Killer's Here' and 'The Twist Came From Tampa'.
He invited me to join him on stage for a slow minor key reworking of 'Shake ,Rattle and Roll' and I became a believer. Along with Butch Hancock he's my favourite lyric/song poet of these times.
Since then he's cut a great version of my song 'Irish Rockabilly Blues' for his 'Poisonville' album and via the Internet we wrote several pieces together for his 'Magneto' recording.
I've just cut two of those songs ... 'Degas in New Orleans' and 'Last Days of Tampa Red' on a record I've done with Wes McGhee called 'Night Ride to Birmingham'.
Ronny and I have talked about doing an album together for a long while now and we are currently writing songs and exchanging ideas with that aim in mind.
'Valentine Roadkill' is Ronny's latest release on his own Blue Heart Records which he operates from his hometown of Tampa, Florida. Another great collection of songs it has received wonderful reviews from both Mojo and Uncut magazines, with Sylvia Simmons making it Mojo's Americana album of the month recently.
