TINSLEY ELLIS RELEASES VIDEO FOR SWEET ICE TEA
Song A Highlight Track From Acclaimed New Album, Labor Of Love
| Labor Of Love is equal parts passion, grace and artistry…earthy, contemplative and gut-bucket. Ellis’ vocals deliver old-world goodness without pretense or artifice. [This is] the real deal for lovers of the bona fide. –Vintage Guitar Ellis delivers a masterclass in passionate musicianship. Raw, edgy performances. –Relix Labor Of Love is an unqualified masterpiece. –AllMusic |
Today, Monday, March 9, Atlanta-based blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Tinsley Ellis releases his new video for Sweet Ice Tea, a highlight track from Ellis' new album, Labor Of Love (released January 30). Labor Of Love is Ellis' second acoustic album (after 2024's Blues Music Award-nominated Naked Truth), and his first acoustic album to contain all original material. The album is available on CD, Georgia peach-colored vinyl LP and at all digital service providers. It is available to order here.
Since the release of Labor Of Love, many outlets including No Depression, AllMusic, Living Blues, Blues Music Magazine, Relix and numerous publications across the UK and Europe have featured Ellis and his mesmerizing acoustic music. Vintage Guitar magazine put Ellis on the cover of its February 2026 issue.
Sweet Ice Tea debuted on the nationally syndicated radio program, Acoustic Café, in over 120 markets. Labor Of Love hit #1 on the NACC Blues Genre Chart (North Americana College & Community), #1 on The Big Blues Radio Chart and appears on the Folk Alliance International Radio Chart’s Top 50. It’s also at or near the top on blues radio chart across the globe in France, Australia, Canada and the UK.
According to Ellis, “Sweet Ice Tea is a hill country blues stomper with a plaintive shout-out to the love of my life -- Soul Food! We hope it makes the listener hungry for more songs from my new Labor Of Love album!” The video for the song was directed by filmmaker Tony Bieser, who also directed Ellis' previous videos for Too Broke and Hoodoo Woman. Watch Sweet Ice Tea below.
With Labor Of Love, Ellis delivers a raw, edgy, self-produced set of 13 original compositions, all performed with pure emotional honesty. The songs spin modern tales of floods, conflagrations, voodoo spirits, personal travails and heaven-sent prayers. From the feral opener Hoodoo Woman to the John Lee Hooker-groove of Long Time to the evocative, Skip James-inspired To A Hammer to the Son House-style stomp of Sunnyland, Ellis inhabits his songs in a way that is simply astonishing.
Each performance carries the weight, experience and hard-earned wisdom Ellis learned over four decades on the road, making Labor Of Love as profoundly deep and moving as any music he has made in his career. It covers the gamut of emotions, finding good times in the hard times, mixing gentle beauty with foot-pounding ferocity.
Ellis continues performing solo all over the country in his aptly named “Two Guitars And A Car” tour. For Ellis, playing solo, acoustic blues has helped him tap into the raw essence of the music. “I love doing these shows,” Ellis says, “I can be more expressive and emotional as a solo acoustic artist. I just love the sound of acoustic guitar. I always have.” Find Ellis' tour dates here.
“No matter what I play, I like to have an edge, "Ellis says. "For me, just playing this music is a labor of love. I sat at the feet of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf. I got into this music because of them. I always told myself if I could just make a living playing the blues, I’d be, at least in my own mind, successful.”
Premier Guitar believes he’s more than reached that goal, declaring, “Ellis is a legend of American blues music...he’s an American music treasure. He delivers a sermon on the power and glory of the blues, and is one of modern blues’ greatest performers.”
