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.
By his own admission, Fox is a shy guy, but that doesn’t deter his ambition. A student at Belmont College in Nashville where he’s majoring in music business and minoring in art, he takes his trade seriously, and does so with a decided sense of passion and purpose. Fascinated with the seminal folk music of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, John Hartford, John Prine, Johnny Cash and any number of other tireless troubadours, he combines true roots relevance with his own contemporary credence.
Fox began his musical quest early on. He first picked up the banjo in his pre-teen years and expanded his musical arsenal soon after. By age 14, he was already writing his own material and interning for radio station WDVX-FM. At 17, he was hosting several shows on the station and releasing his initial EP, the obliquely titled “Nothing To Say.” He followed it up a year later with his first full length effort, “Tall Tales,” in 2017.
Speaking on the phone between classes, Fox said the new album is a marked evolution as far as his creative process was concerned.
“Half of the songs are new and half are songs I had written three or four years ago,” he explained. “Some of them are songs I just wanted to get on disc, and others are things I had laying around. They felt like they fit together. The idea was to make a more produced sounding album. The songs have a little more kick to them. The last album was pretty raw because it was recorded live. This time around I wanted to do something different.”
Fox also cited distinct differences in the material, a sound that he described as far more expansive. In fact, many of the song titles — “Dark, Drifting Eyes,” “From the Window of Some Far Away Hotel,” “Thinkin’ Too Much,” “Cry For Freedom,” et. al. — suggest a decidedly downcast state of mind. Fox acknowledges that at the time he wrote most of the material, he was dealing with a somewhat melancholy mindset.
“This was me two years ago,” Fox said. “It was a difficult time. I had just started college, and I was getting out into the world. I didn’t really think about the songs when I wrote them, but I guess they kind of reflect what was going on in my head. I didn’t really have a direct goal when I wrote them, but they just sort of came out.”
This time around, he said there was nobody looking over his shoulder and no specific schedule to be aware of. The album was recorded over the course of eight months as time and touring allowed.
“Instead of just trying to get it done, we stepped back and really took our time with it,” Fox recalled. “I think that made all the difference and helped me get back into the recording process.”
Fox said that he’s not exactly certain what spawned his interest in making music. He claims he didn’t inherit it from his parents, but that somehow it came to him naturally.
“I don’t know if it was the music necessarily,” he said. “It wasn’t like I heard folk music and said, ‘That’s what I want to do!’ I just found that playing banjo all day, every day, was how I liked spending my time. That kind of transformed into a snowball effect. I liked history and so it ran into that, and I hit all sides of it. Plus, the music I was discovering — Woody Guthrie, Malcolm Holcombe — was powerful stuff.”
Fox said his affinity for that vintage material came naturally. “There’s not a lot of stuff out there with that kind of depth,” he said. “It does have a head start, especially compared to something that’s just come out, and that just makes it so profound. You can’t really ignore the greats that.came before.”
Consequently, the comparisons come naturally. In some ways his stage stance recalls the early Bob Dylan, just as his dedication to folk tradition naturally likens his efforts to the seminal work of Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie. At the same time, Fox maintains his intention to remain true to his own musical mantra.
“Those are obviously people I look up to,” he said of those early influences. “But if you don’t do it your own way, or have something new or different to offer, then I don’t really see the point of doing it. If I was just doing something bland or unoriginal, then I might as well just go home.”
As far as the future, Fox isn’t certain of where his career will eventually lead him. He’s still young, after all.
“I don’t feel any expectations,” he said. “But I do get the impression that a lot of people don’t take me seriously. I’m not much of a people person anyway. I don’t really like being around a bunch of people. Not that I’m afraid of it, but I don’t really get my kicks that way. I’m still figuring it all out. Having someone tell me I’m great doesn’t really do it for me.”
By Lee Zimmerman Daily Times correspondent, Oct 30, 2019