Alligator Records

Ellis plays Saturday night at the Blue Ridge Blues and BBQ Festival, on First Street, Roanoke, which was once the legendary music spot Henry Street.

IO Jukebox

Tinsley Ellis

• To the Devil for a Dime
• Hell or High Water

History buff

Five sites that are big for Ellis

• The Big House: Macon, Ga. The place where the Allman Brothers Band lived in their early years.

• The Stax Museum: Memphis, Tenn.

• Chess Records Studio: Chicago.

• Cyclorama: Atlanta. Display depicting the battle of Atlanta.

• Graceland: Memphis, Tenn.

You don't spend most of your life on the music circuit without learning how to get a crowd fired up.

Tinsley Ellis learned many of his lessons long ago. He was among the first guitar players to take advantage of a wireless setup, roaming among audiences in the 1980s while his band, the Heartfixers, opened shows for such artists as Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Ellis, long removed from the Heartfixers, would become a headliner in his own right. But histrionics aren't what earned him his place on stage. He's also developed a unique voice on guitar, to go along with his fine singing voice. You can see him and his band, including bass player "The Evil One," Saturday, capping off the daylong Blue Ridge Blues and BBQ Festival. Get show info.

Here's our e-mail interview with Ellis.

Q: The first time I saw you, you were with the Heartfixers, opening for Stevie Ray Vaughan in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1984. So, it's been 22 years since then, and you're still out there on the road. How do you do it and keep from going insane?

A: The road will eat you up if you are not careful. I get as much sleep as I can. The days of the all-night party are in the past for me.

Q: I read that you still have one of B.B. King's broken guitar strings, which he handed to you from the stage when you were a kid. Talk about King's influence on your playing, and where you've taken it from there.

The B.B. King show that I saw in the early '70s has served as a musical blueprint for my live shows. He opened with a fast number or two then dropped it down in tempo and dynamics for the next song. This he repeated over and over, finishing the concert with a showstopper tune.

As for his playing within the songs, he did that call and response thing between his voice and guitar that he does so well. Offstage, he greets his fans and signs autographs. All these things I watched him do that night and have copied ever since.

Q: One reviewer has called you "unappreciated, criminally underrated." Are you the kind of guy who thinks about stuff like that, or are you more the "get-up-on-stage-and-rip" kind of guy who doesn't care about those kinds of labels?

A: I tend to ignore the great reviews and dwell on the harsh ones.

Q: You have a degree in Southern history from Emory University, in Atlanta. In what ways does that kind of knowledge come into play in your musical life?

A: In my youth I was fixated on Southern culture and my love for blues played a big part in that. I still go to see the historic sites in all my travels.

Q: On your new, live CD, "Highwayman," bass guitar and background vocals are credited to The Evil One. Do you have to sleep with one eye open on long trips? Is an evil bass player generally more in the pocket than a good one, or a morally ambiguous one?

A: The Evil One gives my songs strong, muscular support and he is my right-hand man on the road and has been for the better part of 20 years. I can't disclose his real name ... well, I could, but then I'd have to kill ya. lol

Q: I think it's a tricky thing to be a white guy and sing the blues. You pull it off nicely, though. Was there ever the temptation to try to impersonate a B.B. or a Freddie King? And how did you develop a style that sounds like you?

A: There is no denying the demographic roots of the blues. By describing my music as blues/rock I get myself out of a lot of "hot water." Plus, that's what I am anyway. My music owes as much to Eric Clapton as it does to Albert King.

I try to perform and record as much original material as possible. That way I avoid trying to sound like someone else.