Ellen McIlwaine

Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Ellen McIlwaine was a gutsy, spirited performer who played and sang a fiery brand of blues like few other female blues singers. Raised by missionaries, McIlwaine spent her first 15 years in Japan, playing piano at age five and singing in a church choir. She began listening to U.S. Armed Forces Radio in junior high school and became enamored with singers like Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and Professor Longhair. McIlwaine returned to the U.S. with her parents when she was 17 and attended King College in Bristol, Tennessee and DeKalb College in Atla...