Ethan Askey is creating original rock, rhythm and blues music in the Rocky Mountains of Canada, and reaching audiences around the world. An emerging songwriter on the international scene, he has served a long apprenticeship as studio session player and sideman to all sorts of projects but only recently has launched his exciting new project, Ethan Askey & the Elevators.
Known also by the nickname of “Shorty” in his musical circles, Ethan is not short in stature and he is not from the American south, despite being a blues harmonica player of some renown. He is more familiar with the MacKenzie River delta in the Canadian Arctic than with the Mississippi delta. He was practically born with a canoe paddle in one hand, and a harmonica in the other. And no matter whether he’s camped along a northern river or in the depths of the Grand Canyon, or having a hang in the salsa Caribbean or bohemian Czech Republic, he’s rarely without his chosen instruments. He makes music in unlikely places with friends old and new.
Now, Ethan Askey & the Elevators have formed to create more new music. Purveyors of fine Rocky Mountain roots and boogie blues, in their electrifying live performance they can reinvent an '80s pop hit as a barn burner, and then transport audiences virtually to a Chicago club in the '60s with Howlin' Wolf. With a powerful sound driven by electric harmonicas and guitars, theirs is a contemporary blues band that colours outside the lines. They've lived a little, and they will draw you into tasty tales of faraway places, love gone wrong, and whistling past the graveyard. The fresh and often funky music they present on stage moves audiences in body and soul.
“Shorty is a soul connector. His musical conviction and humble charm are the things that great music scenes are made of”