Ellis gets loopy when she's cooped up in her 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan – or the "Green Machine," as she calls it. And the Minneapolis-based folkie is about to take the nearing-200,000-miles vehicle on tour, stopping in Ann Arbor at 8 p.m. April 16 at The Ark, for an extensive tour to support her latest album "Break the Spell," released also as an acoustic demo-like disc called "Undefended Heart." But, before she leaves, she's got one important task to wrap up: Taxes. Then, she's off – keeping herself sane with Dolly Parton CDs and sleep. When someone else, we hope, is behind the wheel.
This isn't your first time to Ann Arbor. Where do you like to go when you're in town?
There's a Thai restaurant nearby that we go to sometimes, and I have to say I haven't spent a whole lot of time actually in Ann Arbor with downtime. I've been mostly, when I come through, I sort of drive through and I'm excited to be there and like, I walk around the perimeter of The Ark (laughs), and then I play my show. And I just feel so happy. It's one of those things where I know that there are so many cool things about the town, but I just haven't a chance to experience them yet.
What spell are you trying to break on the new album?
It's a constant shifting, changing thing who we are. What we're really doing here – it's sort of a philosophical question in many respects, but breaking the spell is very much about, I think, I know for myself I really want to live more in my life in a way that's really needing my life today.
I think it takes a lifetime, perhaps. Or many lifetimes – I don't know, depending on your beliefs (laughs), to really figure it out. But I really have an aspiration in my heart to just really need my life and have as much awareness or presence or whatever with it as I can. And I think breaking the spell is sort of breaking this idea that I have it all figured out – 'cause I certainly don't.
That's very deep and philosophical. Have you ever thought about being a therapist?
(Laughs) I have been told that if I wanted to change careers or whatever that that may be an option for me, but I don't know. I've never really considered doing anything other than music. I don't know if I could be in an office, even if it meant cool conversations about life.
The lyrics on this album are as candid as ever.
In my songwriting, I just really more and more want to really be very clear in whatever I'm talking about or speaking to in a song. I think that's where I'm headed and I think that's sort of what my goal is for writing. I know for me, those are the songs that move me, the songs that really, when you're listening, you're just like, "Ahhh, yeaaah." There's no moment that pulls you out of that place, that space, that room it takes you to.
'Words You Said' is definitely one of those songs. And in the liner notes, you thank Terri (Mazurek) for the words she said. Is that song about her, and who is she?
Terri, my partner – we had actually lost a very good friend of ours. She was 33 years old and it just – it was all so fast, and she had been recovering from skin cancer. She had been declared cancer-free, so it was a real surprise when she wasn't feeling well and she went into the doctor, and they basically said that she had something crazy like 36 or 48 hours left to live.
We really thought about our own lives, … (how) the chances of us dying together are pretty slim, and what if one of us does die really young? She said, 'If I die before you do, I want you to move on as soon as you can. I want you to find love right away.'
It really, really moved me – and so that song really came out of that place of giving someone who's passed on giving their loved one permission to love again and acknowledging the complication of that and the bittersweet-ness. And the full sweetness, I guess I should say.
Wow. That's one of the sweetest stories I've ever heard; it could be a Nicholas Sparks book.
(Laughs) Totally!
Ellis
8 p.m. April 16
The Ark, Ann Arbor
http://www.theark.org
