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Apr 25, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Erica Silverman

Over the years singer/songwriter Robert Ellis has built up an extensive catalog, one that moves between piercing alt country, raucous piano rock, confessional folk, and playful jazz arrangements. Fans last heard from him in 2019 with his latest record, Texas Piano Man, but in the years since Ellis has entered into a new phase of his career, leaving his record label and diving inward with his forthcoming album, Yesterday’s News.

Ellis’ new record finds him stripping his songwriting back more than ever before, recording live to tape and accompanied only by acoustic guitar, upright bass, and the occasional handheld percussion. The result is patient and minimalist. Yet, it also shows off the quiet poignant depth to Elllis’ songwriting, enlacing absorbing narratives and hypnotic passages into a series of delicate folk and jazz arrangements.

“I’ve spent my entire career trying to make records that I thought would be ‘exciting’ to other people,” Ellis says, “but the albums I’ve always been most drawn to are small and gentle and soft. The more I sat with these new songs, the more I realized that their stillness was their strength.”

The full album is out in a few weeks on May 19th. Today, ahead of the record’s release, Ellis has has shared another new single, “On The Run,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“On Your Run” finds Ellis leaning into the dark and smoky side of his songwriting, recalling moonlit moments from Nick Drake’s discography or from Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska era. Ellis’ vocals are hushed and intimate, swirling above knotted guitar work and shading his lyricism in shadowy drama. Ellis places the song’s protagonist on the road in the deserts of west Texas, trying to escape towards unknown horizons: “If heaven feels like standing still I’d rather go to hell / We are running from the silence at the bottom of the well / Running from becoming another book up on the shelf / We are running from each other / We are running from ourselves.”

Ellis explains of the track, “There’s this stretch of Interstate 10 somewhere near Bakersfield Texas. There’s a gas station there. It’s the only one for miles in any direction. You more or less have to stop if you want to make it to the next town. I’m getting gas as quickly as I can, nervously scanning the horizon. I have to keep going. Just keep going. I get back in the car and drive.”

Check out the song below, out tomorrow, April 26th. Yesterday’s News is out May 19th via Niles City Records.