Chicago Folk Singer - Ellen Dee

Last year I had written a little about the "It's Here" era of the Whitsuntide Singers.  It's Here being the coffee house near Loyola University that the group played at for almost two months as the "house band".  We opened for the main acts that included Josh White Jr., but more often Joel Cory and Ellen Dee.

Ellen was a fantastic songstress who played a booming Gibson twelve string guitar.  She had a engaging stage presense and I never got tired of listening to her after we'd warmed up the audience.  We played It's Here for six weeks straight and I developed a crush on Ellen.  After our gig there ended I lost touch with Ellen, but she was one of the great Chicago folk artists whose name can be mention in the same breathe with the likes of Steve Goodman, John Prine, Fred and Ed Holstein, Bonnie Koloc and Tom Dundee.

Ellen had me over to her place one evening and I asked her where she got her songs.  She went to her records and pulled out The Allen - Ward Trio album.  As I read the liner notes I saw several songs I recognized from her set playlist.  Brothers, Sisters, and Friends, Hold On To Me Babe, and Now-a-Days are favorites that come to mind.  


I was lucky enough to re-connected with Ellen a couple years ago.  She is now the president of her own company in LA.  But back in the late sixties she was every bit as successful IMHO on the folk stage at It's Here "America's Greatest Coffee House".