Music
Press
"...They’ve kicked off their transformation with a bang, playing four shows at the recent South by Southwest festival in Austin and recording a new 10-track album that will be released later this year. You can hear four of the tracks on the band’s web site, www.bushrodwashington.com.
Shea Ellis shares lead vocals with Eli Elkus, with the pair also mixing it up on guitar, harmonica, ukulele, mandolin and banjo. Rounding out the group are John Bello on vocals, bass and guitar; Ollie Elkus on drums, percussion and beatbox; and Adam Kelly on violin, keyboards and guitar.
The band blends their new, full sound from a complementary mix of instruments, vocals and melodies, run through with lyrics that are classic, but often with a twist, like this throwaway line in “James”: “You can fix the cars with motor skills/ and the kids with pills/ but you can’t fix a heart...” - The Wire, Portsmouth, NH
Discography
Down With Bushrod Washington (2013)
Photos
Bio
When multi-instrumentalist Adam Kelly and Singer/Songwriter/Electric Guitar Master Shea Ellis decided to form the yet-unnamed Bushrod Washington in the summer of 2012, their one goal was to build an ego-free, democratic band with the best musicians they could find. The then eighteen year-old Singer/Songwriter Eli Elkus fell into their laps shortly thereafter, and the trio (featuring two singer/songwriters) scheduled studio time for the fall, hoping to record a handful of songs with a rhythm section of studio musicians. Before the first studio date, however, a grinning, bearded bass player in flip-flops named John Bello was introduced to the band by a childhood friend of Adam's, and he was quickly brought into the fold, driving up to the studio in central NH from Tufts University, where he was finishing his Economics degree. An underperforming studio drummer lead to the completion of the band, when Eli mentioned that his then sixteen year-old brother Ollie could "do better". Finishing the album with Ollie (who has since graduated from high school a year early), the band rehearsed like crazy and drove down to Austin, TX in March 2013, playing successful shows during the South by Southwest festival that were booked on the strength of their recently pressed debut album, Down With Bushrod Washington. A year after Adam and Shea formed the band at Shea's kitchen table, the band is planning their second album and looking to perform across New England.
Links
