BATH – Singer-songwriter Ellis Paul will play at The Chocolate Church Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10.
Paul is part of the Boston school of songwriting, an urbane, literate folk-pop style that helped ignite a folk revival in the 1990s.
His charismatic, authentic performance style has influenced a generation of folk-popsters.
His songs regularly appear in hit movie and TV soundtracks.
“I feel like I’m more a part of a community now than just a songwriter singing about my own struggles and the struggles of the friends I see around me,” Paul says of his career today. “Maybe that’s the difference between being a singer-songwriter and being a folk musician, that transition into more of a community sense of writing.”
Between 1993 and 2003, he won an unprecedented 12 Boston Music Awards. His songs were heard on hit TV shows “Ed” and MTV’s “Real World” and on the soundtracks of several Farrelly Brothers films, including “Me, Myself & Irene” starring Jim Carrey and “Shallow Hal” with Gwyneth Paltrow. Peter Farrelly has called Paul “a national treasure.”
“There are differences between the me now and the me I was in the early ’90s,” he says. “I have a reliable fan base that keeps a roof over my head, for which I’m so thankful.
“And I think they’re also willing and forgiving enough for me to go through any evolution I choose, as long as the core of what I do is honest, and that I continue to write songs and stories about the things I see around me.
“I need to keep feeling refreshed, and I think I’m looking out more than in these days. I’ve been down the Ellis Paul rabbit hole, you know, and now I’m looking around and trying to learn new things, experience other people’s music and stories.
“I have no idea where I’m headed, but I think it’ll make me a broader artist.”
Tickets are $10 for members and seniors, $12 in advance for the general public and $14 at the door.
They may be purchased by calling the Chocolate Church at 442-8455.
For more information about upcoming events, people may visit the Web site, chocolatechurcharts.org.
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