When Texas music staple Robert Ellis set out to record his latest album, the quiet, meditative Yesterday's News (released May 19 via his Niles City Records), he had one goal in mind: make the album he's always wanted to make.
"I've spent my entire career trying to make records that I thought would be 'exciting' to other people," Ellis said in a press statement. "But the albums I've always been most drawn to are small and gentle and soft. The more I sat with these new songs, the more I realized that their stillness was their strength."
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And when asked to name a country song that had a profound impact on him, Ellis credits another gentle and soft tune that packs a hell of a punch: Keith Whitley's "I'm No Stranger to the Rain."
"I love Keith Whitley. His voice, playing and the songs, especially the songs...there's just nobody better," Ellis tells Wide Open Country. "This song in particular is such a beautiful lyric. It also has some surprisingly difficult chord changes. That's the thing about all of Keith's music; on the surface everything sounds really natural and easy. It's pleasant to listen to. But, if you want to dig deeper there's a wealth of not only some high level musicality, but also some of the most devastating and emotional lyrics, delivered by someone who actually feels it, and lived it."
Ellis recently shared his cover of "I'm No Stranger to the Rain" with Wide Open Country readers.
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Yesterday's News is the follow-up to Ellis' 2019 album Texas Piano Man.
