Like most artists, Eli Fox found himself with plenty of time on his hands during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
And like most boys with roots in East Tennessee, the Nashville-based singer-songwriter took advantage of that downtime to engage in a pastime that stills his mind and occupies his hands: He went fishing, and it was on the banks of the Clinch River that his most recent single, “A Pretty Woman’s Like a Rainbow Trout” was conceived. “I was just trying to catch some trout, and one got off, and it just kind of stirred up a lot of things I had been thinking about — feeling lonely, feeling disconnected from people in the pandemic,” Fox told The Daily Times recently. “It’s kind of funny, because people hear it and are like, ‘That’s a little weird, but whatever.’ But I had someone tell me, ‘Man, if you’re gonna put that out, you’ve got to own it.’ I can’t be halfway about something — I’ve got to own a song as weird as that!”
To be fair, the title may be a tad unorthodox, but in exerting that ownership, Fox — who will serve as the latest guest of Daily Times columnist Lee Zimmerman’s “Songs and Stories from The Bird and The Book” series on Wednesday at the bookstore/event venue of the same name on East Broadway in Maryville — sells it with the same earnestness that’s been his calling card since he left his teenage bluegrass band to pursue a solo career.
It’s been seven years, in fact, since Subtle Clutch broke up, but it’s a band still remembered fondly because of the passion and skill of its members, Fox among them. A graduate of Webb School of Knoxville, Fox sings like the second coming of James McMurtry and harnesses the multi-instrumental deftness of a folkie like Dylan. His interest in exploring sounds outside of the bluegrass paradigm found purchase on his debut EP, “Nothing to Say,” a rollicking set of country honk, Appalachian blues, Old Time porch picking and tales of grenade-tossing monkeys and more. He started booking shows as a solo act, put together his own band and went back into the studio to cut “Tall Tales” in 2017. A second full-length, “Or Something Like It,” came out in 2019, and he’s slowly and steadily working on his next effort, he said.
“I’ve just started on it, with the bare bones on one or two songs, but I’d like to experiment sonically with it,” he said. “I’ve done some field recordings of freight trains, and I want to get some atmospheric sounds and just experiment with sound a little bit. That’s something I’ve never really done — it’s always been cut and dry music with no effects.
“As for the writing, this is the first time I’ve ever gotten a red pen and edited the songs. I never did that before; I always just wrote it down and that was it. But now, I print them out and go sit somewhere and really think about them some more. This is an album that’ll have 12 songs, but I think each of them could stand alone. That isn’t always the goal, but I think they’re all getting better and getting more honest, because I don’t see songs as a chance to just make money or have folks sing along. I see songs as an expression of living.”
Credit both the growth in ability and the outlook on the process to his time in Nashville. He moved there in 2018 to attend Belmont University and decided to stick around. Along the way, he said, he’s made great connections, bonded with other artists and seen a commercial side of the music industry that’s also shown him what he doesn’t want to do.
“I go to bluegrass jams, and that’s kind of been a pretty good community, and there’s always something going on, so you can get out and play a lot with people and meet a lot of other musicians, so it’s fun to do that,” he said. “But the downside is that I’m 23, and I already feel burnt out! It feels like I’ve been doing it forever, and in some ways, it feels like I’m just starting. I still want to do it 100%, and I put everything I have into it, because that’s who I am, but we live in a world where you have to pay rent, and gigs don’t always do that.
“I do fairly well, but at least at the stage I’m at, as an artist in the modern world, you’ve got to have some other income. You can take gigs where you get more, but you’re playing cover songs, and that’s good for variety, but to pay the bills just doing original stuff takes a long time to grow.”
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From a first glance, Eli Fox might seem like a normal 20-year-old college student at Belmont University. For Fox, though, his college story isn’t one that fits the normal narrative. Not only does Fox have a college school load on his plate, but he balances life in the music industry on top of it, hoping that one day the hard work will translate to a career on stage and in studios.
Listening to Fox’s music, listeners might be refreshingly surprised to discover that his sound isn’t one that falls into an everyday genre heard today on radios and by younger artists. Fox’s passion for music was introduced to him before his teenage years, as he noted the first instrument he picked up was a banjo.
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It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Eli Fox an adolescent prodigy. At the tender age of 20, he’s already a veteran musician, courtesy of an early album, EP, and his newest effort, “Or Something Like That,” which was released last month. With an interest in making music that began in his early teens, he’s nothing if not prodigious, as affirmed by the fact that he plays 10 instruments and writes all his own material.
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East Tennessee’s Eli Fox is the latest artist to show that remarkable proficiency; at age 18, he’s setting his sites on college and, equally importantly, boasting his full length musical debut, the ironically dubbed Tall Tales. The follow up to an initial EP that came out last year, it finds Fox taking his cue from traditional Americana and, most strikingly, the wit and rapport of early Bob Dylan.
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Singer-songwriter Eli Fox, who recently graduated from the Webb School of Knoxville and made his bones as the co-founder of bluegrass band Subtle Clutch, strikes most people who see him perform as a reincarnation of a young Dylan. From his vocal delivery to his staccato work on a harmonica rig while his thumb rolls across the banjo, he’s an ideal choice for the all-star tribute, although any sort of comparison is shrugged off by the young musician in his characteristic aw-shucks fashion.
Read MoreSaying Eli Fox is low key is an understatement. In conversation, the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist doesn’t seem like a young man who would be so comfortable when he gets up on stage.
Read MoreWe are excited to announce the 5th Annual Big Kahuna Wing Festival music lineup! We welcome The West King String Band, The Coveralls, The Stella Vees, and Crawlspace with special guest, 17yr old Eli Fox as part of our live music for this year’s festival.
Read MoreEli Fox will be joining us for the Camperfest Reunion! Camperfest Reunion celebrates the iconic WDVX 14ft Camper Broadcast Studio that started it all in 1997 and the Camperfest Americana Music Festival, which happened from 1998 – 2007.
Read MoreEli Fox is one of those overachievers; at age seventeen he’s already got an old soul, as his self-produced debut EP Nothing To Say makes convincingly clear. Having found his footing in bluegrass, honky tonk and classic country, he fits comfortably into a niche that suggests perhaps he’s one of Hank Williams’ lost offspring, especially on a song like “Where Do You Go?” where he emulates Hank’s down home rambleand earthier instincts.
Read MoreAlthough he may have been the youngest performer there, Eli Fox & Band was never wet behind the ears. He started the festival with his signature fusion style of bluegrass and Americana music past, present, and future while coming-of-age inspired group, A Boy Named Banjo took us on a musical journey and played songs straight from their new EP.
Read MoreEli Fox's debut album is called "Nothing to Say ...," but that's probably because Fox lets his music do most of the talking.
At only 17, Fox has been a part of the acoustic band Subtle Clutch, which played on a main stage of the Rhythm N' Blooms festival and opened Waynestock in 2015, and, more recently, has been performing as a solo artist. He plays at least seven instruments — and there might be more by next week. He's also a rising senior at Webb School of Knoxville.
Read MoreIt’s time to get back to the Wild Wing Café for another Early Bird Special, and this is indeed special. I am going to go way out on a limb—birds can do that you know—and declare that Knoxville’s own Eli Fox will be a nationally recognized recording artist.
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