Country star Lindsay Ell to headline first Down by the Riverside show since 2019
Rochester will get a taste of country music this weekend with Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist Lindsay Ell performing in the first Think Bank Down by the Riverside concert of the summer.
Ell will play this Sunday, July 11 at Mayo Park. Opener Luke Hendrickson will be on at 7 p.m. and Ell will take the stage at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
Previously garnering multiple awards from the Canadian Country Music Association, Ell was nominated for the JUNO award “Country Album of the Year” for her most recent album, Heart Theory (2020). As a survivor of sexual assault, Ell also founded the “Make You Movement,” named after a song on the album, to help survivors of sexual trauma and domestic abuse.
Ell will continue to play shows every weekend this summer at different festivals until joining Blake Shelton’s “Friends and Heroes” tour in mid-August to serve as the opening act.
MCB: Who has influenced your music style and how has it evolved from the past?
Ell: When I was a little girl I was influenced by everybody from Shania Twain, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton, so I had kind of a mishmash of influences back then. Now I listen to every single kind of music, from X Ambassadors to Keith Urban; you know, all these indie artists that are so incredible and so I pull influences from a lot of different kinds of music. If you were to try to peg my music, it would kind of fall in female John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban space.
MCB: What was it like releasing your latest album, Heart Theory, during a pandemic?
Ell: It was so scary, we just didn't know what was gonna happen and most of our plans to release things got changed. We couldn't travel or do any promotions, so we had to rethink a lot of that. And you just didn't know if people were actually going to hear it because most of the way that we get our music out there is, yes digitally, but also through touring and being able to travel.
I think throughout all of Covid we needed music more than ever. I know I was so grateful for any album that was released over the past year and a half, I just soaked it up like a sponge.
MCB: What does it mean to be able to get back on stage and connect with your fans?
Ell: Yeah, it's everything. I mean, playing live is my favorite part about what I do. There's nothing getting on a stage, singing your songs for thousands and thousands of people and hearing them sing them back to you — it's just it's such a crazy experience. My heart definitely missed that and although we've gone to do a lot of virtual things throughout quarantine, it's just not the same as being able to truly entertain people in person. Yeah and so. It's something I'm so grateful for, and every time now the band and I step on stage, it's like, ‘wow, this is something special.’'
MCB: What inspired you to write music from this latest album that channels the seven stages of grief?
Ell: I wrote Heart Theory sort of as a musical diary. I was writing what I was feeling and I wanted it to be a record to help people go through things, whether that's a breakup, losing a loved one, going through a slump or a global pandemic. I thought how cool would that be to write an album as a roadmap of my healing. The seven stages of grief is just one way of articulating that process. I didn't even know I was writing Heart Theory like that until I was about halfway through the record and realized this is special. It’s a concept album and I want people to listen to it top to bottom, to see me slowly unravel and get to a healthier place.
MCB: What do you hope to accomplish through your “Make You Movement” foundation?
Ell: I’m so excited that through Heart Rheory, I was able to write a song called “Make You,” which is about my story as a little girl. I've never talked about that before publicly and I'm grateful that this album gave me the opportunity to do so. I'm so grateful to be a musician and sing and write songs and travel and play them all over the world. But the coolest part of my job is that it gives me a platform to be able to do really good things. I was able to start my first foundation, the Make You Movement, and I want other survivors to know that they're not alone.
We are definitely focused on victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse but mainly I just want other survivors to feel like there is support out there for them, and they don't have to feel so alone when they're going through these traumatic times in their life.
MCB: Last year’s show in Rochester was postponed because of the pandemic. How does it feel to be able to come back here and perform?
Ell: We're just so excited to come back to Rochester; we love playing in Minnesota so much. We cannot wait to get back, this is still like the first time a lot of us have played this new album so we're pumped up and ready to go. It's gonna be a good show. People are not gonna want to miss it.
✍️ Interview by Haley Handelman
