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Ellis Paul

Feature

Sep 15 2009 - You Never Forget Your First

The first time that I heard myself on the radio I was driving a weather beaten VW van through the streets of Jamaica Plain, MA on the way to my day job working with kids in Boston. I was doing a social work kind of job and music was a dreamy hobby and an outlet for the stress of my day. WERS was playing a song called "Ashes to Dust" off a cassette album I had dropped off to the station. And I was in my van, pulled over twitching and crying and singing along to my own dam voice

It felt like I had won the lottery. And in a way I had.

The stamp of approval that WERS gave me was one little building block to a long road of experiences, shows, songs and faces. Many stations play my songs now, but WERS will always be my first.

And you never forget your first.

Twenty years later, I will run into Boston and switch on WERS and there I will be--nestled between some new songwriter and Bob Dylan. And you know-- it feels like I won the lottery.

You can get a limited edition Ellis Paul Live @WERS cd by donating to their station this week during their fund drive. Musicians like myself and generations after me depend on these stations to support our ability to get bread on the table and support our families...as well as stay on the road and bring our music to all of you! There are three new songs on this CD and you can hear a soundcheck where I was noodling on their gorgeous 1932 Steinway, the melody I was playing ended up as the song Hurricane Angel.

Thanks y'all, we wouldn't be able to continue without you and WERS! You can listen on line or turn your dial to 88.9 FM www.wers.org