Jesse Ellis

Jesse is orginally from Tupelo, Mississippi. He has been playing guitar since he was 14. By the time he was 16 he was playing juke joints and nightclubs around Mississippi and Tennessee.  At the age of 18 Jesse moved to Memphis and started playing pickup gigs with mostly Rhythm and Blues singers.

Jesse spent a year and a half as guitarist for Ollie Nightingales Express Band. Ollie was on the legendary Stax label in the 1960's and had a couple of regional hits with, "May the Best Man Win" and "I know I Got a Sure Thing".

In 1995 Jesse traveled to Germany to perform a six-week festival tour. Upon his arrival back to the U.S.A., he formed the Funkhealers, a mostly funk free-form band.  The Funkhealers played on the historic Beale Street in Memphis for 2 years, as well as touring through Alabama, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

Jesse has played on shows with many performers such as Delta Blues guitarist, Son Thomas, from Leland Mississippi; J.D.Sumner, and the Stamps Quartet, B.B. King, and The Bar Kays just to mention a few.

Jesse is now performing his One Man Band Show in Austin, Texas where he now resides. His show includes Guitar, traps, harmonica and vocals plus various other instruments including the banjo, washboard and the kazoo.