Robert Ellis

An Americana singer/songwriter who deftly counterbalances his earnest troubadour side with a sly eccentric streak, Robert Ellis first emerged from Texas with the finely rendered Photographs. Crossing the weathered, folky storytelling of Townes Van Zandt with rowdy honky tonk, Photographs showed Ellis was an heir to two distinct strands of Texas country, a duality that thrived over the course of his career. He chose to fuse the two sides together on such records as his eponymous 2016 album, but he'd also tease them apart: he followed the raucous humor of 2019's Texas Piano Man with Yesterday's News, a tender and introspective album from 2023.