DIRECT VIDEO LINK:https://youtu.be/w0vpzY8JMHw

Curtis Eller, whose American Circus debuts its new song, “Lenny Bruce” here on MusicTAP today, is a banjo player, songwriter and rock & roll singer. A twenty-year show business veteran, Eller and his band have developed a devoted international following based on dynamic, highly physical stage performances and an extensive catalog of curious phonographic recordings. The iconoclastic musician has spent more than a decade relentlessly touring the club, theatre and festival stages of North America and Europe.  Eller is a gifted and prolific songwriter whose banjo-driven songs describe a dream-like vision of American history where all points in time have collapsed into one. Eller and the band are preparing to release a new full-length album on which they have augmented their indelicate, rock & roll rhythms with a tempestuous cloud of horns and an graceless choir of backsliders in their quest to bring Eller’s historically evocative compositions to vivid, cinematic life.

THE MURDER BARN SESSION? Following a tracking session for their forthcoming album, Curtis Eller and the members of The American Circus gathered in a beautifully dilapidated barn in rural North Carolina and filmed a series of live performance videos. The band blasted through five numbers, including three songs from the new album, one from the vault, and a cover of a Pete Seeger classic. “Lenny Bruce” is a musical tribute to the legendary comedian, who became and unintentional martyr to free speech, in 6/8 time.

SESSION PLAYLIST:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0k6m0d0CGRUPnHEA39A-Oh6LI3a91FO8

VIDEO CREDITS: Directed and filmed by Alex Maness (http://alexmanes.com). Recorded and mixed by Joseph Dejarnette (http://studio808a.com). Filmed on location at The Prospect Hill Murder Barn.

Curtis Eller: banjo & lead vocal
Dana Marks: harmony vocal
Stacy Wolfson: Dancer
Steve Cowles: tenor saxophone
Hugh Crumley: electric bass
Jack Fleishman: drums

CURTIS ELLER’S AMERICAN CIRCUS (ONLINE):Official website: http://www.curtiseller.com 

Bandcamp: http://curtiseller.bandcamp.com

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/curtisellermusicInstagram: http://instagram.com/curtisellermusic

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By Justin Vellucci

Justin Vellucci is a staff writer at MusicTAP and Popdose, a contributor to Pittsburgh City Paper and Punksburgh, and a former staffer at Delusions of Adequacy and Punk Planet. His music writing has appeared in national publications such as American Songwriter and PopMatters, alt-weeklies The Brooklyn Rail and San Diego CityBeat, blogs Swordfish and Linoleum, and the Gannett magazine Jetty. He lives in Pittsburgh.