History of the Ellis Paul Archives
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The Ellis Paul Archive started, very simply, as my personal collection of Ellis Paul CDs. It began with the purchase of Stories on May 22, 1997 after a show at a venue called The Backstage in Seattle. Later that year I purchased Say Something and Carnival of Voices. The following year, Translucent Soul was released and became the fourth item in my collection. At some point during that first year I discovered that Ellis Paul appeared on several compilation CDs and I started adding them to my collection. I also discovered that Ellis had made guest appearances on several recordings of other artists and I began acquiring them. Thus began a continually growing and seemingly never ending pursuit. As of this writing the collection of compilation CDs and guest appearance CDs, when added to Ellis' own solo work numbers nearly 100. In 1998 there was a feature article about Ellis in the magazine Dirty Linen. I began a subscription to the magazine and discovered the capability to order back issues. When I learned that additional articles about Ellis existed in a few of those back issues, they were added to my collection. From there I discovered other articles in other magazines. In most instances I have managed to acquire the entire magazine issue, not simply an article reprint. Newspaper articles were next. The collection of newspaper articles includes online reprints as well as the entire hard copy in many instances. Friends around the country, most of whom I met through Ellis’ Fan Out organization, sent many of these to me. In the fall of 1999 I met Bill Eley. By that time, I had started keeping a typed, annotated list of the CDs in my collection and I e-mailed this list to Bill. He replied saying how much he enjoyed reading my annotations and thus began our friendship. Shortly after meeting Bill, one of us referred to my collection as an “archive” and we started discussing the possibility of turning what began as my personal collection into a true collection for archival purposes. Before I knew it, Bill started helping me by searching for CDs on E-Bay. I refer to Bill as Chairman of E-Bay Procurement. Many of the really obscure CDs now in the collection are a result of Bill’s tenacity and generosity. Bill and I both read what we could about maintaining an archive and together in August 2000 we visited the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. I should mention that since I am a librarian by profession, this visit was especially exciting for me. Bill arranged for us to meet with Jennifer Cutting, Folklife Specialist, and Stephanie Hall, who was the Director at the time. Both Jennifer and Stephanie were very helpful in describing their process for storing items in the collection and provided much encouragement. Jennifer gave us a tour of the Folklife Center, which included seeing some of the items in the Center’s Woody Guthrie collection. By July 2001, the EP Archive had grown to such a degree that the next logical step was to inventory the items in the collection and develop a list of its contents. Over the 4th of July holiday I designed a format for the print listing and added the contents. Since then it has undergone continual revisions as the collection has grown. In June 2003 Bill and I decided to move forward by designing a web site for the EP archive. Our objective in acquiring items for the EP archive and maintaining it in an organized way is to capture a moment in time during which folk music is enjoying a resurgence of popularity. We hope that future generations of folk musicians and folk music followers will benefit from having this historical documentation. We feel that the music of Ellis Paul will be an important part of that history. Belle Vernon, PA; June 2, 2003
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