Ellis Paul has been in the music making business for over twenty-five-years. Born in northern Maine, he attended Boston College on a track scholarship (running 10,000 and 5,000 meter races). An injury during his junior year ended his running career and music replaced it. He has won many awards with his music. Currently living in Charlotte, Virginia, his album/CD titled Chasing Beauty, released in 2014, includes a song titled “Jimmie Angel’s Flying Circus.”

Cover Art by Ellis Paul

Photo: Martin Sanderson Morgan

Ellis Paul leaving the Arcata Playhouse stage with his guitar named Guinness, 11 November 2014.

Jimmie Angel is one of Ellis Paul’s heroes. In October 2013, he wrote: Jimmie Angel was an actual person! A barnstormer in the 1930s and in the early years of aviation, he went from town to town in the Midwest giving rides on his airplane as well as performing some incredible stunt flying. He went gold hunting later in life flying over the jungles in Venezuela looking for gold and silver sites for a mining company. While doing this, he discovered the tallest waterfall in the world! Today it is called Angel Falls in honor of him. The song is historical fiction – I imagine him constantly shifting relationships because of his nomadic lifestyle and wrote this from the perspective of someone he left behind.