Curtis Eller's American Circus
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Curtis Eller's American Circus

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"Already one of my albums of the year"

CURTIS ELLER'S AMERICAN CIRCUS
Wirewalkers And Assassins
It's not often that a press release makes one laugh out loud, but Curtis Eller's is an object lesson in how to engage the reviewer and make her/him favourably disposed even before hearing the album. And there was no disappointment, as the album carries all the wit and quirky originality of the PR: the two quotes on the CD sleeve are from wirewalker Karl Wallenda (of the Flying Wallendas, dummy) and assassin John Wilkes Booth, and it is the latter who haunts the songs in one guise or another. John Wilkes Booth (Don't Make Us Beg) is a heartfelt - and somewhat outrageous - plea for one way to solve the problem of the current President of the USA, while The Curse of Cain examines Booth's mind after the event in Ford's Theater in 1865, sympathetically.

To make comparisons as a way of getting into the album, Eller's lyrics are reminiscent of the likes of Tom Waits with a detailed knowledge of forgotten and half-remembered parts of American, and particularly New York's, history: he doesn't burn up like the 'forest fire' of cliché, but like a 'Sweatshop Fire' ­ the unspoken reference is to the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire of 1911. The plea of the man bound for execution, Save Me, Joe Louis is supposed to have been a real cry from a black convict in the 1940sŠ and so on. The legendary corrupt Tammany Hall leader, Boss Tweed, rubs shoulders with Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon, until the whole thing takes on the hallucinatory quality of Luc Sante's evocation of New York, Low Life.

But if it were just a clever reworking of history, the album would be dry as dust, if unusual; that it isn't is due to Eller's clever mixing in of more straightforward (sic) tracks: Plea Of The Aerialist's Wife adds a plaintive touch, as against the tale of the Hartford Circus Fire, 1944, which may or may not have taken place, and Daisy Josephine is a lovely lullaby/balled as befitting his subject matter. Ellers holds the music together with parlour-style banjo picking, framed by upright bass and drums, with delicate touches of backing vocals, organ, squeezebox and steel guitar. It's all very light and attractive, with a lot of waltz time in there, and is a bit of a left-field classic that is already one of my albums of the year. - Ian kearey-fROOTS MAGAZINE


"A Terrific Work of Song Craftsmanship"

A Terrific Work of Song Craftsmanship *****
--------From the first track to the last, this batch of songs by banjois Curtis Eller is his hardest hitting release to date. Like his previous full length album "Taking Up Serpents Again", this album is sure to please the Americana buff with a hankerin' for gutsy singing and crafted lyrics.

Subjects like circus fires, assassins on the run, wirewalking, the greed of the well-to-do, and cries for help from the gas chamber are just a small example of the wealth of vocally illustrated lyrics on this record. A great mix of songs from straight up rock, to Civil War era tunes, to slapback echo that could have come straight from the Sun recording studio circa 1956, Eller quenches the thirst of many, but leaves you pressing "Play All" over and over again.

This time, to go along with his basic band, violin is a welcome addition to a few tracks. Some amazing lap and pedal steel playing really make "After the Soil Fails" and "Sweatshop Fire" shine, and of course, the tremendously strong background vocals we come to expect with each album, are there in fine form.

Favorite tracks include "Save Me Joe Louis", "The Curse of Cain", "Sweatshop Fire", and his sweet dedication to his daughter "Daisy Josephine". Each track is fantastic on it's own, but the whole album is recommended as a terrific work of song craftsmanship. - Baxter Jones-Beetlejuice 1988


"Gasoline and Pistol Justice"

Curtis Eller's latest creation "Wirewalkers and Assassins" certainly lives up to it's title. A whole new album showcasing that yodeling banjo player from New York in fine form. The trickling melody of how the album opens in "After The Soil Fails" takes you back, puts you in that place from which the rest of the songs that follow are put into perspective. The one thing I've always appreciated about Mr. Eller's music is that it's a story between the lines. You're talking Richard Nixon and thinking George Bush, he's singing about union and confederate armies and somehow you end up thinking about republicans and democrats.

The impact of my first listen was sudden and definitive with it's full rich sounds, inspired lyrics, banjo picking toe tapping head wrangling idiosyncratic simplicities. Are we talking about Tokyo being the new motor city as we are in "Firing Squad" or asking on "John Wilkes Booth" to hold President's more accountable in a more definitive kind of way. It's a gasoline and pistol sort of justice that has the spirit of that old sound, but with a modern perspective infused through out.

It's a very linear sort of traveling that goes on with this album and the beauty is that the music itself is truly timeless. It's powerful in both it's cadence and conviction, and so it only stands to reason that if you're looking for something completely different than the normal stretch of sound that permeates through your speakers then Curtis Eller and his American Circus's latest creation would certainly be like adding tonic to the water supply. - Antony Mores-Folk It Up


"A troubadour on par with Steve Earl"

Performance and exhibition
What drives someone to become a performer? Conceit? A passion to be heard? Dissatisfaction with other entertainers? Madness?
What drives someone to become a performer that puts their neck literally on the line
What drives someone to become an assassin? Conceit? A passion to be heard? Dissatisfaction? Madness?

New York City has a great banjo player and songwriter embodied in Curtis Eller, as evidenced by his newest full length recording: "Wirewalkers and Assassins". These ten songs aren't exactly a cycle but they do touch upon some reoccurring themes (as illustrated by the CD's title). Circus performers, killers and other celebrities peak from behind curtains and strut boldly onto center stage.

Tightrope walkers, assassins and celebrities all have one thing in common: they all have somewhere to fall. And, damn, they can fall hard (though Booth managed to keep going after breaking his leg when he jumped from Lincoln's box to the stage.) But there-in is the essence of drama: the great brought low. It's the goal of an assassin and the end result of many entertaining careers.

Eller is a great storyteller. He takes the tale of John Wiles Booth and carves it into a classic murder ballad ("The Curse of Cain"). He shapes boxer Joe Louis in to an object of veneration, the focus of a condemned man's prayer (on the closer "Save Me Joe Louis"). On "Plea of the Aerialist's Wife" he remolds himself into a country crooner (reminding me of the great Rex Hobart). On this one song he manages to make heartbreak and fear seem both personal and universal. The tunes aren't always downers though, "Sweatshop Fire" and "Firing Squad" are barn burners and flag wavers... rural vaudevillian calls-to-arms. They remind us of a time when folk music was insurrection music, protest music.

Curtis' unease, his dissatisfaction makes him a backwoods troubadour on par with Steve Earl. Both seemed burdened by the past, what could-have-been and the shadows those events throw on the present. This album is haunted by the (American) Civil War and by the killing of a president that followed it. One man can follow a vision and take action. But what vision? What action?

Curtis Eller's troubled soul is palpable on this recording, but he isn't without hope. He finds strength in love and in people's ability to endure... and, most potently, in the witty turn of a phrase.
Perhaps his feelings can be summed up by paraphrasing the Brown Bomber: "We're gonna win 'cause we're on Joe Louis' side."

Quick Review:
If you think the line "I'm gonna get fucked up like Ulysses S. Grant" is genius, this album is for you.

Jordn Block--Sepiachord
http://www.sepiachord.com/ce.htm - Sepiachord


"Rough Wide and Impervious to Irony"

Curtis Eller touts himself as "New York's angriest yodeling banjo player," which is like claiming to be the funniest Tuvan throat singer in Tallahassee. He's got the market cornered, all right, but he's less angry than voracious about the old-time American history (in style and song) he plunders. On this year's Wirewalkers and Assassins, the circus-trained juggler and acrobat plucks and plinks over dark visions of the American South, pre-execution prayers, faux-proletarian arsonist fantasies and a heady, obsessive matrix of conspiracy theories. But even as he bumps up against the musical limits of vaudevillian hokum ‹ some slick slide guitar and country-soul-sister backing vocals save him ‹ he spins his yarns with unfettered imagination and affection. Eller's lexicon is rough, wide and impervious to irony.

Roy Kasten-RIVERFRONT TIMES
St. Louis, MO
http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2008-08-13/music/curtis-eller/ - Riverfront Times


"Wirewalkers & Assassins"

This here is a fourth, long-awaited, and very welcome album from CURTIS ELLER's AMERICAN CIRCUS. The Wirewalkers are the cultural heroes, working with honour and no safety net, for the wonderment of us all. The Assassins are the nemeses to those who would use, and destroy the heroes. Both archetypes weave and swing their ways through the songs.
Spotting their historical (or personal) counterparts will be a pleasure for months ahead. Fidel Castro, Joe, Lewis, Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, Richard Nixon and all the rest. But for our entertainment today, we have, Ladies and Gentlemen, a glittering cast.
We have:
Ms Liisa Yonker and her soulful sisters in song Ms Marilee Eitner (doubling accordion) and Ms Rima Fand (who offers a fine violin to duet with the banjo); the ever-upright Joseph DeJarnette on double bass; the D.J. Fontana of the Circus - the rhythmical Mr Chris Moore; the multi-talented Gary Langol on upright bass, lap steel, organ and mandolin; old friend Gerald Menke on pedal steel, Amy Kohn on extra accordion; and our own, our very own, (and New York City's adopted) Mr Curtis Eller on banjo, voices and heart-rending songology. Handbills, posters and tickets have been painted for the occasion by the talented Mr Jamie Walcott, in the frontier style to which we have become accustomed.
CURTIS ELLER is a solo performer for the most part, with a theatrical presentation and a talent for deep Americana of a pre-talkies Vaudeville kind. On this album he plays banjo in a percussive and gymnastic way, sprinkling it like Tabasco over the well measured arrangements of eleven original songs. The shapes and themes are familiar to us American Circus die-hards. The instrumentation and arrangements and the sound production have all developed and got richer since the earlier work. Continuity of studio, producer and key personnel has done nothing but good. New listeners would be wise to start right here.
In hearing a song that rails "Where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him?", sounding like it could have been recorded by Sam Phillips in 1956, with Marilee Eitner playing the prettiest accordion middle eight you've ever heard, you might be inclined to smile and file it under "Charmng". But ponder the deep pleasure of the harmony singing and reflect on a long tradition of grotesques in all our cultures, painted and dressed in affectionately angry mockery of the living.
"The Circus lives in our dreams", sings Eller, as "Hartford Circus Fire 1944" winds to its mournful end. An old world has been burnt to the ground through neglect and abuse. "The angels' voices don't carry, the choirs disband and drift apart". And we don't sleep well. The song doesn't need to name villains - we all have our own P.T. Barnum, but the deeds have been done and those glories are lost. When the whole shooting match is named "America Circus", I think it's fair to interpret Eller's laments for the burnt out circus as connected in some serious way with 3rd Millennium USA.
The same might be ventured of his interest in factories, coal mines, warfare and other historic sites of toil and untimely death."Sweatshop Fire" (WOODY GUTHRIE's autobiography is full of people set afire - it's a very American way) is not so arcane and historical is it? Whether it's our souls destroyed in office cubicles, or our comrades destroyed in third world diamond mines, we need songs that point the finger at the drunken maniacs in suits who set the whole thing burning (like Ulysses S. Grant). As in earlier songs about drunks with power, Eller captures the self delusion of alcoholism with scary accuracy.
The brightest (but by no means the only) beam of pure optimistic light on the album is "Daisy Josephine", a celebration of the birth of a next-generation Eller. New York might be knocking down its own heritage, and throwing sculpted angels into the New Jersey swamp, but a beautiful new life in the City's heart brings hope and pleasure to fill the void. In his redoubtable imagination, Curtis has the stone angels re-emerging to welcome the baby.
I've mentioned the bursts of quality harmony singing, and the very pert squeeze box. Other delights include lap steel guitar on the very alt-country "Plea Of The Aerialists Wife". "whose lines and stature have more than a shade of "Stand By Your Man" about them. The accordion touches this song, too , but gently. The careful rationing of the instrumentation in itself is a strength, keeping everything fresh and unexpected at each entry.
The predominant banjo has a choreographic quality to it, as if dancing around Eller's central character, commenting with twirls, twitches and bursts of notes like a tragi-comic Pierrot, hesitant and aggressive by turns. It's combination with a range of other instruments creates a series of textures that suggest something archaic, but which are novel and unusually expressive.
The last words must go to the closing masterpiece of a song "Save Me Joe Lewis", with organ mandolin and strung-out - Sam Saunders-Whisperin' & Hollerin'


"Wirewalkers & Assassins"

This here is a fourth, long-awaited, and very welcome album from CURTIS ELLER's AMERICAN CIRCUS. The Wirewalkers are the cultural heroes, working with honour and no safety net, for the wonderment of us all. The Assassins are the nemeses to those who would use, and destroy the heroes. Both archetypes weave and swing their ways through the songs.
Spotting their historical (or personal) counterparts will be a pleasure for months ahead. Fidel Castro, Joe, Lewis, Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, Richard Nixon and all the rest. But for our entertainment today, we have, Ladies and Gentlemen, a glittering cast.
We have:
Ms Liisa Yonker and her soulful sisters in song Ms Marilee Eitner (doubling accordion) and Ms Rima Fand (who offers a fine violin to duet with the banjo); the ever-upright Joseph DeJarnette on double bass; the D.J. Fontana of the Circus - the rhythmical Mr Chris Moore; the multi-talented Gary Langol on upright bass, lap steel, organ and mandolin; old friend Gerald Menke on pedal steel, Amy Kohn on extra accordion; and our own, our very own, (and New York City's adopted) Mr Curtis Eller on banjo, voices and heart-rending songology. Handbills, posters and tickets have been painted for the occasion by the talented Mr Jamie Walcott, in the frontier style to which we have become accustomed.
CURTIS ELLER is a solo performer for the most part, with a theatrical presentation and a talent for deep Americana of a pre-talkies Vaudeville kind. On this album he plays banjo in a percussive and gymnastic way, sprinkling it like Tabasco over the well measured arrangements of eleven original songs. The shapes and themes are familiar to us American Circus die-hards. The instrumentation and arrangements and the sound production have all developed and got richer since the earlier work. Continuity of studio, producer and key personnel has done nothing but good. New listeners would be wise to start right here.
In hearing a song that rails "Where is John Wilkes Booth when you need him?", sounding like it could have been recorded by Sam Phillips in 1956, with Marilee Eitner playing the prettiest accordion middle eight you've ever heard, you might be inclined to smile and file it under "Charmng". But ponder the deep pleasure of the harmony singing and reflect on a long tradition of grotesques in all our cultures, painted and dressed in affectionately angry mockery of the living.
"The Circus lives in our dreams", sings Eller, as "Hartford Circus Fire 1944" winds to its mournful end. An old world has been burnt to the ground through neglect and abuse. "The angels' voices don't carry, the choirs disband and drift apart". And we don't sleep well. The song doesn't need to name villains - we all have our own P.T. Barnum, but the deeds have been done and those glories are lost. When the whole shooting match is named "America Circus", I think it's fair to interpret Eller's laments for the burnt out circus as connected in some serious way with 3rd Millennium USA.
The same might be ventured of his interest in factories, coal mines, warfare and other historic sites of toil and untimely death."Sweatshop Fire" (WOODY GUTHRIE's autobiography is full of people set afire - it's a very American way) is not so arcane and historical is it? Whether it's our souls destroyed in office cubicles, or our comrades destroyed in third world diamond mines, we need songs that point the finger at the drunken maniacs in suits who set the whole thing burning (like Ulysses S. Grant). As in earlier songs about drunks with power, Eller captures the self delusion of alcoholism with scary accuracy.
The brightest (but by no means the only) beam of pure optimistic light on the album is "Daisy Josephine", a celebration of the birth of a next-generation Eller. New York might be knocking down its own heritage, and throwing sculpted angels into the New Jersey swamp, but a beautiful new life in the City's heart brings hope and pleasure to fill the void. In his redoubtable imagination, Curtis has the stone angels re-emerging to welcome the baby.
I've mentioned the bursts of quality harmony singing, and the very pert squeeze box. Other delights include lap steel guitar on the very alt-country "Plea Of The Aerialists Wife". "whose lines and stature have more than a shade of "Stand By Your Man" about them. The accordion touches this song, too , but gently. The careful rationing of the instrumentation in itself is a strength, keeping everything fresh and unexpected at each entry.
The predominant banjo has a choreographic quality to it, as if dancing around Eller's central character, commenting with twirls, twitches and bursts of notes like a tragi-comic Pierrot, hesitant and aggressive by turns. It's combination with a range of other instruments creates a series of textures that suggest something archaic, but which are novel and unusually expressive.
The last words must go to the closing masterpiece of a song "Save Me Joe Lewis", with organ mandolin and strung-out - Sam Saunders-Whisperin' & Hollerin'


Discography

Wirewalkers & Assassins, Taking Up Serpents Again, Banjo Music For Funerals, 1890

Photos

Bio

Curtis Eller is New York City's angriest yodelling banjo player. He sings about pigeon racing, performing elephants and Jesus, all of which he has seen with his own eyes. He started his show-business career at the age of seven as a juggler and acrobat in the Hiller Olde Tyme Circus in Detroit, but has since turned to the banjo because that's where the money is. His biggest musical influences are Buster Keaton, Elvis Presley and Abraham Lincoln.

Mr. Eller and his band, The American Circus stubbornly perform and record in New York City. They have appeared at funerals, horse races, burlesque revues and punk rock dumps. Haunted by the ghosts of silent film and wearing a dead man's clothes, Mr. Eller and the band have staggered their way into the hearts of audiences from London and Amsterdam to Los Angeles and Montreal. 2008 promises to see them touring extensively on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

Along the way, they have shared the stage with strippers, contortionists, glass eaters and folksingers. They play more waltzes than any other band I know of, but nobody ever seems to feel like dancing.

On the lastest American Circus CD "Wirewakers & Assassins" Mr. Eller presents songs about John Wilkes Booth, Joe Louis, Fidel Castro, Jack Ruby and Richard Nixon (as well as the usual tales of Civil War generals and Elvis Presley). As always, sporadic yodeling and some strong language should be expected.

Mr Eller's tune "Alaska" was voted "2003's most Popular" on NPR's All Songs Considered. The music has the unmistakable sound of a pistol being fired in an abandoned salt mine: lonesome and violent.

The bands three previous CD's, "Taking Up Serpents Again" (2004), "Banjo Music for Funerals" (2002), and "1890" (2000), prove The American Circus capable of being recorded magnetically. On them you will here true stories about snake handlers and Coney Island, lies about P.T. Barnum and Amelia Earhart, and all the banjo playing and yodeling anyone can reasonably expect in these dark times.

All of the group's recorded output is available at live performances and online at The American Circus Souvenir Shop. Digital facsimiles of these artifacts can be downloaded from I-Tunes and CD Baby. Confederate currency will no longer be accepted.

Onstage and in the recording studio, The American Circus has attempted to capture the spirit of the Harford Circus Fire of 1944. Although there are sure to be many acts of heroism by performers and crew alike, ultimately it will prove to be the greatest disaster in circus history.

AMERICAN CIRCUS PERFORMERS-Past and Present
Liisa Yonker, Marilee Eitner, Joseph "Joebss" DeJarnette, Chris Moore, Gary Langol, Rima Fand, Gerald Menke, Amy Kohn, Michael Plunkett, Tim Kiah, Elizabeth Walsh, Adam Budofsky