Fan Page Annex

The "Almost Authentic Folk Songs" Story

Dolan Ellis' career really began in earnest in 1959 when he became the house act at Portofino's Coffee House in Scottsdale, opening for the best folk acts of the day: Bud & Travis, Stan Wilson, Josh White, Katie Lee, Odetta, and others too numerous to mention. 

When Portofino's closed its doors as a coffee house to take on a new character, Dolan hit the road, traveling throughout the Western U.S.  The story below tells what happened next, between the beginnings of that road tour and joining the New Christy Minstrels.

 The first part is an email from a fan named Chuck Brillowsky, and the second is the reply from Dolan himself.  We hope you'll enjoy Dolan's story about this early experience.

At 11:19 PM 4/6/99 -0400, Chuck Brillowsky wrote:

Hello -

I was very pleased to find a site dedicated to one of my childhood "heroes" and musical influences - Dolan Ellis.

I'm a 48 year old Michiganian who was presented with a stack of record station promotional 45s some 30-odd years ago. Most of the records were forgettable, but I did uncover a few relatively unknown gems. Among them was a record by - as I recall - Dolan Ellis & the Inn Group. It had the somewhat offbeat title "Joe Bean", which attracted my attention immediately, owing to my fascination with unusual or humorous songs. To my delight, "Joe Bean" turned out to fit into BOTH categories. Flipping the disk over, I played the other side, an even stranger tune called "Astigmata", which featured a pseudo-flamenco guitar strum, multipart-harmonied "Ay-yi-yi-yi"s and a bizarre lyric about a little village torn asunder by the construction of a rocket launch pad in the town square. It was great stuff to this somewhat warped youngster!

Many years passed before I would have any further exposure to Dolan's work. Sometime in the early 80s, I believe, I heard a Dolan Ellis tune on the Dr. Demento radio program. Don't remember anything at all about the song, but I do remember thinking that it definitely was in the spirit of Joe Bean and Astigmata.

It's now the late 90s - the internet age, and, although I'd come up empty in searching for Dolan Ellis information before, I gave it another shot and there it is - a web site! I found the information presented very interesting and am happy to learn that he's still around, still performing and has achieved a degree of stature, even if it is in a location that's quite remote to me. Please give him my best regards and thanks for the inspiration in my own amateur musical ambitions through those two mildly twisted songs.

Quite by coincidence, I play in a trio called The UNPLEASANTS
(http://members.home.net/unpleasants) and this coming Saturday, I'll be making my solo debut performing Joe Bean for our local Folk Society. This will likely be the first time any of the other members or performers have been exposed to a Dolan Ellis piece and I'm looking forward to hearing their response!

Once again, thanks for the memories and a very entertaining web site.

Regards,
"Unpleasant Chuck" Brillowsky

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From: Dolan Ellis <dolellis@c2i2.com
To: cbrillow@home.com
Subject: reply
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 1999 08:08:37 -0700

Chuck,
So your're the guy who bought that album! (or did you pick it up at a carport sale?) I always wondered who it was.

Holy cow! If I would have known then that my recordings would follow me all the way through life, I would have tried harder to get it right.

Thanks for the shout. It is always fun to hear echoes from the past. You didn't mention the New Christy Minstrels. Did you know that I was also an original member of that group? Yep! I was on the first five albums and it was that gig that really launched my career and gave me the finacial stability to stay with music. The "Almost Authentic Folksong" album was my first time out of the chute.

It seeems appropriate that you should be reviving this old stuff around the Easter season. Somehow, it seems poetic in spirit.

Here's a little background on the album for you. I was performing at the Ice House in Pasadena. It was my first gig ever on the west coast and in the Hollywood area. These two fellows, Leon Pober and Bud Freeman, came and caught my act and asked me to be the vocal artist for the album. It was quite exciting for me at the time, however, very dangerous to my budding career. I was afraid that it would catagorize (sp?) me and get in the way for future recording opportunities of my own material and musical style. I chose to do it, feeling that it was better to have confusing exposure than maybe no exposure at all. After all, this was my first time in the water.

Upon the single release of "Joe Bean" it was the pick hit of the week at a "bullet" station in the San Francisco area. (a station that Billboard used as their basis for the top 40 selections). We were all elated at the strong entrance into the market. The next week or two it continued to cllmb upward. Then, if you remember, Carl Chessman, the mass murderer in California was executed the following week and the FCC (who had the ability to control the content of the airways) BAN the recording from being played.

It fell off the charts and that was the end of my first dream of a Corvette or T-Bird! It was great material, written by two guys with a great sense of humor. Leon and Bud are both gone now, but their efforts live on in guys like you. Thanks for hearing the greatness in their work.

I was only an instrument, along with 32 other musicians in the studio.

(This was before mulit, multi track technology, so it had to be done RIGHT in the studio.) Due to my youthful inexperience of working at that level of showbusiness and singing with a full orchestera, most songs took twenty to thirty takes each. Looking back, Leon and Bud must have been tearing their hair out! I was so "stoked" with excitiment that I didn't even realize it at the time. It was a wonderful opportunity and the beginning of a lifetime of making my living with music. That's what I have been doing all of these years and continue to do so today. At 64 years of age I continue to do many concerts and conventions and make my music on a regular basis at The Arizona Folklore Preserve. How lucky can a guy get?

My best to you and the group. Thanks for keeping the embers aglow for "Almost Authentic Folklsongs".

Dolan Ellis....
Arizona State Balladeer
Arizona Folklore Preserve