Elana James - violin and vocals
Whit Smith - guitar and vocals
Jake Erwin - upright bass and vocals
Influences
Bob Wills, Blossom Dearie, Stephane Grappelli, Joe Venuti, Johnny Gimble, Stuff Smith, Mildred Bailey, Wade Ray, Hugh and Karl Farr, Louis Tierney, Joe Holley, Oscar Aleman, Eck Robertson, Tommy Jackson
Sounds Like
Elana
Record Label
Shock Records (Australia); Buffalo Records (Japan)
Beginning in 2007, Elana’s trio now features the inimitable WHIT SMITH (from Hot Club of Cowtown) on guitar and vocals, and the dazzling JAKE ERWIN on upright bass and vocals.
GEAR:
I play a 1962 Mittenwald violin and, when playing electric, use an L.R. Baggs transducer pick-up run straight into an early 1980s "Minibrute" Polytone amplifier with a 15" speaker. I only ever use ball-end Dominant violin strings because they are so great, and I always have fours beaux (I mean bows!) on the road at all times -- one fiberglass and three wood -- which get rehaired about every six weeks with superfine Mongolian stallion hair.
A beautiful voice, a fantastic musician, with the heart and soul of an angel.
-Willie Nelson
Her fiddle...evokes memories of the wizardry of Stephane Grappelli and the magic of Johnny Gimble....Special, original, and a true treasure. Listen.
-Fred Foster
Producer, Founder, Monument Records
What fiddling!...and a beautiful voice.
-Laurie Anderson
Elana James is my favorite fiddler hands down! And it looks like I’m not the only one who’s noticed (wink wink nudge nudge).
-Laura Ellen KPIG Radio
Santa Cruz, CA
Elana is one of the sexiest, most talented musicians. Her style hints of another era...taking you places you thought were unreachable by today’s standards. And yet, here she is...
-Raul Malo
The Mavericks
[Elana’s] throaty violin solos arrived in terse, epigrammatic phrases with a sprint, every so often, into chromatic harmony. She also sang in a breathy, un-self-conscious voice that made every double-entendre seductive.
-Jon Pareles
New York Times
