Press launch –
Award-winning singer-songwriter and good storyteller Tyler Ellis releases his ninth album thus far, Hardwarestore, on June 12th, and celebrates it with a report launch occasion/live performance on June 18th at Hugh’s Room in his hometown of Toronto. Hardwarestore is accessible on all main platforms.
Hardwarestore burnishes Ellis’s well-deserved status as an genuine chronicler of working folks’s lives. He captures and dignifies their every day struggles – and his personal – with the guts of a lion, the soul of a poet, and the talent of a lifelong singer-songwriter. The oldsters in these songs work at blue-collar jobs, have a drink or three on occasion, take heed to nation music, sit on the porch and choose guitars collectively. Ellis finds the common reality of their lives – and his personal – as they often discover love and generally lose it, sympathize with one another’s plight, really feel the passage of time, have fun small victories, wrestle with massive hardships.
Working along with his voice and acoustic guitar, and minimal however completely apropos backing devices and voices, he hews carefully to people, nation, and blues traditions, virtually whispering his compelling truths in our ears.
Among the many standouts on Hardwarestore is “Union Music,” which channels the spirit of the late, nice Woody Guthrie, in a heartfelt anthem of unity within the face of division, with a small however highly effective choir of voices emphasizing the purpose. As Ellis sings, “I received my brothers and my brothers received me, I received my sisters and my sisters received me,” he champions the concept “there aren’t any others, there’s simply us,” folks of “each shade and each hue.” One other gem is “Late within the Night,” a music about “consuming my emotions away,” however trying deeper on the despair that fuels the habit, and the inside wrestle with the impact that tough emotions can have, with out a serving to hand. “For Your Tears” showcases Ellis’s experience as a songwriter, offering deep empathy for trauma in three brief verses, with lyrics so universally relevant he needn’t even identify the supply of the ache, and so concise that he does it with three brief verses, in lower than two minutes.
Elsewhere, “On Everyone’s Thoughts,” Ellis seems at how time slips away, usually with out discover; on ”Work Associates,” he celebrates the best way on a regular basis solidarity could make the drudgery of labour simpler to bear; on “Serendipitous,” he rejoices in the potential for discovering real love in an sudden place; on “Hardwarestore,” he revels in heading down there to repeat his front-door key, so his beloved can transfer in, and the couple can stay collectively.
With Hardwarestore, Ellis as soon as once more stakes his declare as a poet laureate of working folks, and a songsmith of outstanding talent. Lengthy could he proceed to catalogue their day-to-day lives – and his personal.
Tyler Ellis has worn two musical hats for a very long time. On the one hand, he’s a celebrated, award-winning singer-songwriter; on the opposite, an award- successful music trainer. So, his wry, considerate songs about love and life in The Nice White North comfortably rub shoulders along with his songs in regards to the seasons, Venn diagrams, and counting to 10.
Together with his educating profession on the again burner (although he now periodically drops in on music packages in elementary colleges round Toronto, because the go-to “Music Provide Trainer”), Ellis has been busy releasing critically acclaimed music. In 2024, it was his album Better-Than, a set of principally unreleased songs recorded stay at The Free Instances Café in Toronto. In 2025, Down by the Don — with cameos by Julian Taylor and Invoice McBirnie – featured two songs nominated for the Canadian Folks Music Awards Music of the 12 months “100 Proof” and “Love Letters.” Now, in 2026, he’ll launch Hardwarestore.
Through the years, Ellis has shared numerous music with lots of people. Whether or not writing ditties for CBC Youngsters (a “days of the week” music); co-writing with The Julian Taylor Band; speaking about music schooling on CBC Concepts (“Ballad of the Tin Ears”); presenting college lectures on the enjoyment of singing (“Unhealthy Singer/Good Singer” with creator Tim Falconer); internet hosting the long-running Riverboat Monday Open Stage, at the moment at Noonan’s pub on The Danforth in Toronto; performing reveals, each solo and along with his band The Eddy Line; his a few years of conducting a 75-plus-member junior elementary college choir; or, simply engaged on his craft, for Ellis it’s all the time simply music as traditional.
AWARDS
- JUNO Award 2024 Up to date Roots Album of the 12 months nomination for Julian Taylor’s Past the Reservoir which closes with Tyler’s music “100 Proof”
- Canadian Folks Music Award 2023 Single of the 12 months nomination for Julian Taylor’s launch of “100 Proof.”
- The music “Weighing Down” by Julian Taylor, and with a minor co-write by Ellis, was nominated for the 2024 Folks Music Ontario (now Folks Canada) Music of the 12 months.
- The music “Love Letters,” (co-written with Julian Taylor), from the 2025 album Down by the Don was nominated by Worldwide Folks Music Awards for Music of the 12 months and was monitor two on Julian Taylor’s JUNO-nominated Pathways.
- Folks Music Ontario Songs from the Coronary heart Award 2019 for “Gone” co-written w/ The Julian Taylor Band
- Toronto Star Readers’ Alternative Music Teacher Diamond Award 2019
