I’d never heard of her but someone recommended a listen she was around in the 60s/70s and supported Hendrix and Muddy Waters amongst other notable names.
Ellen McIlwaine, was fiery slide-guitarist and singer who came to prominence in the late 1960s, has died aged 75. She performed with Jimi Hendrix in Greenwich Village and formed what was then a rare thing – a woman-led rock band – only to strike out on her own after she realised her bandmates “expected me to do the laundry after we finished onstage”.
Raised in Japan by American missionaries, McIlwaine grew up listening to Japanese folk and classical music, as well as the New Orleans soul and blues she heard on the radio. “If you know Ray Charles, you can tell where I got everything I know,” she once said. “It’s a little hard to see because I’m a different colour and a different sex.”
McIlwaine played the harmonica, accompanied herself on the piano, and sang her own songs with a voice that was both delicate and booming, echoing through the Gaslight Cafe and Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village. But she was perhaps best known as a masterful guitarist who danced between frets and used unconventional tunings, inspired by blues musician Johnny Winter
‘All To You’ has this stunning wild and free vocal – like a hummingbird darting here and there with pure unpredictability. Her voice and delivery resonate deeply with me, original and unusual melodies that I love.
There’s a joy to the song that’s been giving me a lot lately. She’s also a mean slide guitarist which certainly is something that I love to hear. The album cover for ‘We The People’ is just amazingly powerful too – a picture of her with her auburn hair flowing. It feels iconic and timeless.
Album: “We The People” (1973)released on Polydor
The Fat Angel Sings 