*Winner, NewSong International Songwriting Contest (2007)
*Nominated for three 2006 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Folk/Americana Band of the Year
*Selected by Paste Magazine as semi-finalists in its "RockNReel at Sea" Contest (Dec 2007). Voted into the Top 5 by Paste's National online vote.
*Nominated by Indie Acoustic Project for Best Pop CD of 2006
*Live Concert DVD currently airing across the US on PBS and Concert.TV
Ellery, The husband and wife team of Justin and Tasha Golden, had its genesis on a college campus in Cincinnati, Ohio. What began as a series of musical experiments then blossomed into a fully evolved partnership of both life and music.
The duo released an EP, Make Your Troubles Mine, in 2005, garnering acclaim in hometown press such as CiN Weekly, Cincinnati CityBeat, and regular airplay on WNKU. The EP grabbed national media attention as well, with a feature in Performing Songwriter. The success of Make Your Troubles Mine attracted the interest of Seattle's Virt Records, which signed the band in late 2005.
The duo returned to the studio with Grammy nominee Ric Hordinski (Over the Rhine, David Wilcox), and reconceptualized the EP. The addition of five new tracks resulted in the band's full-length debut, Lying Awake, released in 2006. The album, written entirely by the band, showcases a musical and lyrical craftsmanship that only the best musical partnerships can produce.
Lying Awake has brought Ellery increasing national attention, including widespread AAA radio airplay (terrestrial and satellite), inclusion on the TV drama, Desire, airplay on Starbuck's Hear Music, and a track on Paste Magazine's CD sampler (Issue 21).
2006 saw Ellery nominated for three Cincinnati Entertainment Awards, including Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Folk/Americana Band of the Year. In 2007, they released their live CD "What I've Said Out Loud," as well as the live concert DVD "An Evening with Ellery." This program has brought Ellery even more attention, airing on PBS stations across the country and on Comcast and Insight via CONCERT.TV.
Later in 2007, Ellery won the NewSong International Songwriting Contest, and was chosen by Paste Magazine as a semi-finalist in its "RockNReel" Contest.
The band's touring schedule has crisscrossed the US in support of such acts as Hem, Over the Rhine, Edwin McCain, Vienna Teng, and Lucy Kaplansky. Ellery has an infectious stage presence that's both endearing and immediately penetrating. Their rapport with an audience is much of what keeps fans coming back again and again, often driving hours to catch the nearest show.
Some may think that two people who live and work together would desperately need some time apart, but that's not the case here. "Crazy as it sounds, Justin and I love being together," says Tasha. "And this is a tremendously exciting time for us... While we've been making music together for over seven years, it's been a very slow discovery of who we are and what it is that we do, where our center is musically. So, we definitely see this as just the beginning."
2007/08 has brought Ellery more recognition, with extensive touring, several successful Nashville shows, a Top 5 spot in a Paste Magazine talent search, and a spot in the semi-final round of the American Songwriter Magazine Lyrics Contest. If recent developments are any indication of what lies untold in the Ellery story, great things are afoot for years to come.
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