Lauren Ellis

Silverline, an imprint of the 5.1 Entertainment Group, announces the release of Nashville based blues rock singer/songwriter and noted guitarist and guitar tech Lauren Ellis? Feels Like Family on DualDisc CD/DVD on June 28th.

Feels Like Family is classic break up album but written from the point of view of an experienced woman rather then a heart broken girl. This is fitting for Ellis as she is a very well respected, experienced guitar slinger, excelling at electric, acoustic, slide and dobro guitars.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, Lauren Ellis has a rich background as a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter, especially known for her soulful expressions on slide guitar.

Moving to Los Angeles, she found road work as guitarist with Rita Coolidge and Nell Carter, backed up legendary R&B duo Don and Dewey, and toured extensively stateside and overseas. In Los Angeles she wrote and recorded her first independent release: the critically acclaimed Push the River.

Lauren was the winner of the 1999 Los Angeles Music Award in the category of Outstanding Guitarist, and was the only woman asked to audition for the post-Garcia version of the Grateful Dead: "The Other Ones". She has opened shows for Bonnie Raitt, Patti Griffin, Etta James and many others, and recent festival appearances include opening slots with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmy Thackery, John Mayall, Marty Stuart, and The Kentucky Headhunters.

After relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, she began work on her upcoming record, Feels Like Family, featuring stellar players including blues hero Tony Joe White, Viktor Krauss; (Lyle Lovett), Kenny Malone; (Alison Krauss), Dean Parks; (guitar wizard, this time appearing on clarinet, plays with Lyle Lovett and Steely Dan, co-writer of Push the River's "Real Love") and Catherine Styron Marx (Nashville session keyboard player). Lauren's touring band also appear: Ed Cain, bass, Rick Lonow, drums, and Andy Behrens, percussion. Lauren is currently the Saturday evening resident performer at BB King?s Blues Club in Nashville.

Songs from Feels like Family have aired on MTV's reality shows The Real World, Road Rules, and Extreme Challenge. Lauren's searing slide guitar can also be heard on the theme for CMT's pop-meets-country series Crossroads, where she also shares composing credits.
Lauren currently splits her time between Nashville and the Northeastern Florida coast. When she isn't writing, recording, or performing, Lauren's other passion is the restoration and repair of guitars and other stringed instruments.

On Feels like Family, Lauren showcases her skills on acoustic and electric guitars, Dobro, lap steel, and even electric sitar, but perhaps most impressive are the songs... heartfelt, memorable, and hook-laden, with strong lyrics and a vocal style that is honest, hopeful, and defiantly real. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, Feels Like Family is a collection of 11 sometimes rocking, sometimes moody new tunes, with Lauren on all guitars.

The album opens with a trio of breakup songs, "Dry as a Bone" a tale of the loss of creativity that often accompanies a broken heart with steel and dobro, "Shades of Blue", this with slide guitar and "End of our Line" featuring the memorable lyric ?a woman thinks her man is gonna change/and a man thinks his baby won?t.? "Afraid to Love" moves into more hopeful new relationship territory. Track five is a cover of the Muddy Waters classic "Just to Be With You." "Feels Like Family" is a portrayal of the way we create and recreate family in the modern world. "When I See You" is a bluesy rocker about the modern woman?s dilemma of independence vs. love. "Living in a Dream" is a waltz bemoaning the consequences of not facing the reality of life. "Setting Son" is the album?s hardest rocker. "Oahu Song" is an instrumental featuring Lauren?s accomplished Oahu lap slide style. "Extra Mile" is the bluesy album closer fittingly extolling the value of trying that much harder.

Extras on the DVD side of the disc include the entire album mixed in 5.1 Multichannel Surround Sound, lyrics, liner notes, interviews, live performance video, video scrapbook, photos and ROM content.

DualDisc provides the ultimate in music value and flexibility, it?s a CD on one side and a DVD-Audio disc on the other side. Just flip it over and you can play your DualDiscs in your car system, home theater system, or any device that will play a CD or a DVD.? On top of your music mixed in 5.1 surround sound on the DVD side, the DualDisc comes complete with all the bonus features you?ve become accustomed to such as videos, photos, behind the scenes interviews, liner notes, and lyrics, etc.?

Silverline went even further by including DVDLauncher on every one of our DualDiscs. By utilizing the ROM zone on the DVD, DVDLauncher offers you even more bonus features like portable music files that allow you to upload your entire album in surround sound onto your iPod or any portable music device using Dolby Headphone? technology.?

In our quest to include as many extras as possible, DVDLauncher.com can be accessed on the world wide web and offers renewable bonus content such as photos, bonus tracks, lyrics, web links, artist and album info, photos, and new release schedules, all of which are continuously updated. Once you?ve registered your Silverline DualDisc, which takes only a few minutes, your account will keep track of the releases you've registered with us, so when you log in you will have instant access to your exclusive title-specific features and artist information right at your fingertips!

Silverline is a division of the 5.1 Entertainment Group, a vertically integrated music company which also owns the immergent and MyUtopia record labels, 5.1 Production Services and 5.1 Music Publishing.? The company is a recognized leader in the audio/visual production, release and marketing of music in the DVD format.? In addition to having released the largest catalog of DVD music worldwide, well over 250 DVD-Audio discs, 5.1 Entertainment Group has mixed and produced projects for Britney Spears, R. Kelly, Usher, Janet Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, Sting, Eminem, Herbie Hancock, Dishwalla, Alice Cooper, Everclear, Hanson, Robbie Williams, Queen, Yanni and Aaron Neville to name a few.