The Candlestickmaker

The Candlestickmaker
Studio album by Ron Elliott
Released	1970
Genre	Folk rock, country rock
Length	32:19
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Gary Downey, Ron Elliott

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The Candlestickmaker is the lone solo album by American musician Ron Elliott, released in 1970 on Warner Bros. It was recorded following the dissolution of The Beau Brummels, with whom Elliott had been the chief songwriter and guitarist. A two-part, fifteen-minute piece titled "The Candlestickmaker Suite" comprises the entire second side of the album.

After the Beau Brummels released Bradley's Barn in 1968, singer Sal Valentino joined another band, Stoneground, leaving Ron Elliott on his own for the first time as a Warner Bros. recording artist. Elliott assembled a team of West Coast musicians including Chris Ethridge (bass), Bud Shank (woodwinds), Leon Russell (brass arrangements), Ry Cooder (guitar), Lyle Ritz (bass), Paul Humphrey (drums) and Dennis Dragon (drums) and recorded The Candlestickmaker, Eliott's lone solo album. Valentino also participated, playing tambourine on some of the tracks.

The first side of the album contains five standalone songs, while the second side is made up entirely of "The Candlestickmaker Suite", a 15-minute piece consisting of two segments. "It's a story about the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker and I," Elliott said of the two-part suite in a 1999 interview. "All of these forces around this guy going through this madness. It has a healing quality to it."

Upon its release in early 1970, The Candlestickmaker received generally positive reviews from music critics. A review in Billboard magazine said, "Elliott's songwriting style makes excellent use of nature's elements and his singing is just right for his songs: natural, masculine and especially casual."The Village Voice called the album "an auspicious debut if we ever heard one."

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