Chad Elliott, with Tommy C. Lewis

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“…Chad Elliott stands out as a timeless and genuine musical poet with supple-strong roots like the bluestem and buffalo grass of Iowa prairie.” – Todd Partridge, NoDepression.com

“Chad Elliott is a veteran singer/songwriter who writes smooth, feel good songs ranging from soulful drinking songs to upbeat road-tunes to down and dirty tunes worthy of Ray Wylie Hubbard.” – Calvin Powers, The Americana Music Show

Like the dark earth of his Iowa origins, Chad Elliott’s life has served as fertile ground for music. Elliott has turned love, loss, fatherhood, divorce and homelessness into lyrics. He performs more than 200 shows each year. He has cultivated more than 1,000 songs in his career while also honing his skills as painter, sculptor and children’s book author/illustrator (Wilderman’s Treetop Tales).

Elliott’s early career demonstrates a love of folk, roots and singer-songwriter music. He has worked with many greats and shared the stage with artists of the highest caliber, including Odetta, Tom Paxton, Loudon Wainwright III, R.L. Burnside, Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, etc. Today, his songwriting has made a marked shift to Americana.

On his 20th album, “Wreck and Ruin”, Elliott dives into his love of roots-rock, soul and blues music with a rocking band behind his artfully crafted songs. Producer and drummer, Ken Coomer (Wilco, Uncle Tupelo) lined up the best rhythm and lead players in Nashville to create Elliott’s greatest album to date. Guitarist and bassist Kenny Vaughan and Dave Roe, legendary Nashville players, add the needed touches to rocket Elliott’s songs into a new arena of hard driving Americana.

The title track of “Wreck and Ruin” was conceived after the Moore, Oklahoma tornado of 2013. Elliott didn’t think too much of the song at the time he wrote it and put it aside. Its lyrics spell out a hopeless situation of a family expecting twins (Elliott being a twin himself). As the mother goes into labor the family finds itself in the back of a broken-down Chevy as a tornado bears down on the land. Nothing is left standing, except the family, now with two babies named “Wreck” and “Ruin.”

One year after writing the song, on Mother’s Day, 2014, Elliott and his family were celebrating at his mother’s home in Iowa. His hard-working, single mother raised four children alone. No one minded when festivities closed early so his mother could attend a Lyle Lovett concert. Two hours after Elliott and his wife and children left, a tornado leveled his mother’s house. Thankfully, no one was home. It could have been worse – the whole family would likely have been home, kids and all, if not for that Lyle Lovett concert. Elliott dusted off the “Wreck and Ruin” song to feature on this album, adopting the motto “Lyle Lovett Saves Lives.”

Chad Elliott has learned not to ignore the machinations of fate, but to pay homage to them. He writes them into songs and carries their lessons with him on tour across the country.