Built on the foundation of the folk / alt-country I Americana sound that Charles Ellsworth has become known for Cesarea is still at times a departure of sorts. While keeping his lyrical focus on strong vivid story telling Ellsworth opens up musically and explores different areas of the blues, psychedelic, and post punk worlds he has only flirted with in the past. At its core Cesarea is an album about the growth that comes from change.
Cesarea was Produced and Engineered by Bob Hoag (Courtney Marie Andrews, Gin Blossoms, The Format) at Flying Blanket Recording in Mesa, AZ. The first single titled "50 Cent Smlie" was inspired by John Steinbeck's East of Eden and features the talents of Jon Rauhouse(Neko Case, Calexico, Jakob Dylan) on pedal steel. Pre-Orders for the album are available for Vinyl/CO/Digital formats through the official Charles Ellsworth website CharlesEllsworthMusic.com as well as iTunes and Amazon.
Born and raised in the White Mountains of Arizona, Charles is no stranger to the struggles of the working-class men and women who populate his songs. Much of his adult life has been spent on the road, with a guitar in arms reach, talking his way onto bar stages and out of traffic tickets. He's taken to heart the advice of Roberto Solano, "Make new sensations appear...subvert daily life... give it all up again, · an author who has heavily influenced Charles's work and who created the character that the album is titled after. Ellsworth's songs wind down a familiar highway, a road more traveled but less explored. His vivid lyrics and near familiar melodies weave to tell stories of heartbreak and loneliness while shining a light on the perseverance of the human spirit.
"Right around the time I turned 22 I was in Las Vegas with a group of some of my oldest friends. On one particularly hungover/still drunk afternoon I was talking with a friend about how neither of us new exactly what we wanted to do with our lives. He was about to head to the peace core for a couple years and I had just gone through a band breakup and had decided to go back to Utah to finish my Bachelor's degree. At some point, I told him I just wanted to write, play music, and travel the world. I didn't care about money, I cared about a life spent creating from outside my comfort zone. He suggested that I read The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. I read it in the final week of the summer before starting school again. It immediately became one of my favorite books, and without realizing it at the time, influenced most of my decisions that have led me to now. I re-read The Savage Detectives while in the studio last year and was blown away by the fact that I was still doing what I wanted to all those years ago. I decided to name the album "Cesaréa" after one of the characters in the book. While the album isn't necessarily about the book, the album wouldn't exist without it and I felt it was an appropriate name. I couldn't be happier with the final product. I've always been lucky be surrounded by such talented, wise, and caring humans." - Charles Ellsworth
