Ellis Paul

Ellis Paul
Paul performing at the University of Maine at Presque Isle May 18, 2014
Background information
Birth name	Paul Plissey
Born	(1965-01-14) January 14, 1965 (age 52) Fort Kent, Maine, United States
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Genres	Folk Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Rounder
Website	ellispaul.com

Ellis Paul (born Paul Plissey; January 14, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. Born in Aroostook County, Maine, Paul is a key figure in what has become known as the Boston school of songwriting, a literate, provocative and urbanely romantic folk-pop style that helped ignite the folk revival of the 1990s. His pop music songs have appeared in movies and on television, bridging the gap between the modern folk sound and the populist traditions of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

Paul grew up in a small Maine town. He attended Boston College on a track scholarship, majoring in English. Injured during his junior year, Paul began playing guitar to help fill his free time and soon began writing songs. After graduating college Paul played at open mic nights in the Boston area while working with inner-city school children. He won a Boston Acoustic Underground songwriter competition and gained national exposure on a Windham Hill Records compilation which helped him choose music as a career.

Paul had released 19 albums by the end of 2014 and received 14 Boston Music Awards, considered the pinnacle of contemporary acoustic music success by some. He has published a book of original lyrics, poems, and drawings and released a DVD that includes a live performance, guitar instruction, and a road-trip documentary. In 2014, his children's CD Hero in You was published as a book by Albert Whitman & Company. Paul plays almost 200 live shows a year.

Ellis Paul was born in Fort Kent, Maine, a small, rural potato-farming town near the Canada–US border. Paul's family had strong connections to the potato industry — his father, Ed Plissey, was Executive Director of the Maine Potato Commission and his grandfather owned a 140-acre (0.57 km²) potato farm. Schools in the area closed for three weeks each year so that school children could help with the potato harvest. Paul spent many hours working on his grandfather's farm. Paul's mother, the former Marilyn Bonney of Buckfield, Maine, is a University of Maine graduate and was an extension agent for northern Aroostook County. She and her husband often worked together on special projects for the service. In the 1960s, Mrs. Plissey produced her own television show "The Aroostook Homemaker" which aired every third week on Presque Isle television station WAGM-TV.