By now you probably have heard the love story behind the Ross Ellis track “Love Blind” and how it’s written for his real-life girlfriend Brittany Hogan. Or maybe you’ve been following Ellis’ Instagram and watched their love story unfold. The song’s poignant piano, a memorable chorus, Lord make me better, and keep her love blind, Ellis’ rapturous voice swaddles the listener into his toe-tapping, sweeping tune. From “Love Blind” to “This Town Still Thinks” to “Home To Me” to “How Do You Sleep”, Ellis’ small town upbringing continues to collide with big time moments in preparation for his debut album from Sony Music.   

What you might not know about this modest, soft-spoken 29-year-old Monterey, Louisiana-native, is that when he first moved to Nashville, he lived in a motel, he has a thing for Big Foot and was a member of the same fraternity as Tim McGraw. But, if you’ve heard any of this songs, including “Ghosts”, “Home For The Weekend” and the Sirius XM No. 1 “Buy and Buy” you inch closer to discovering the man behind the textured stories. Ellis has a penchant for writing hooks that pierce the heart, and bolstering his lyrics with often edgier, more rocking reverb music bed. 

“When I moved to Nashville, I lived in Fiddlers Inn in Opryland,” Ellis, a business management graduate at University of Louisiana Monroe, said. “At the time, I thought that was Music Row.” 

He laughs a little on the other line. One can almost hear him blush. 

“I had a goal list and gave myself six years,” Ellis said. “I wrote nonstop, three songs a day.”

It didn’t take too long before the stars aligned and Ellis connected with singer/songwriters, Jameson Rodgers (“Some Girls”) and Hunter Phelps (“Throwin’ Parties”). They were looking for a third roommate. Ellis soon caught the eye of Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) Bradley Collins. He then went onto sign with Big Deal Music. From there, the checkmarks to his list kept checking off – “Home For The Weekend” (2017) was named a Sirius XM Highway Find. Co-written by Ellis, Scott Stepakoff and Jason Gannt, “Home For The Weekend” captures the essence of returning home for just a quick trip. 

Friday night fire at the lock and dam, throwing out a line bare feet in the sand, ex-girlfriend asking how I am, showing off the ring I didn’t put on her hand, Ellis sings in this up tempo gem. 

Then in 2018, Ellis’ somewhat full circle moment happened when fellow-Louisiana native and Pi Kappa Alpha Eta Omicron Chapter brother, McGraw, performed “Neon Church”. Ellis co-wrote the song with Ben Goldsmith and Ben Stennis. Baptize me in that barroom smoke, bartender, preach to me ‘til my heart ain’t broken no more, ain’t that what this place is for?, sings McGraw in the ballad. 

“I would see Tim’s photo on the Pike House wall, and walk past it, knowing it was a goal to someday write and perform in Nashville,” Ellis said. 

In Ellis’ “This Town Still Thinks”, he takes the listener back to small town living, where everyone knows your business, and around each corner is a memory with an ‘ex’. 

“I wrote that with Dan Fernandez,” Ellis, who performed in a rock cover band called Wayside in his high school years, said. “I wanted to sound like Kings of Leon, rev it up. I dated a girl for seven years before I moved to Nashville. The song is about when you go home and see little glimpses of your life the way it was.”

Ellis continues the rockier murky, music bedrock in the track, “Home To Me”. It doesn’t matter how much I change, cuz this place gonna stay the same…don’t matter how much I leave, it’s always gonna be, always gonna be home to me, his mid-tenor voice croons. 

In “How Do You Sleep”, the underlying bluegrass toned is fused with Ellis’ up tempo vocals. The landscape is broader, the song begs to be heard under the changing colored lights of an amphitheater, with only the blanket of stars stretched above. 

I lay awake in the same bad dream, wondering if you’re doing the same thing…how do you sleep at night, at night, Ellis cries, elongating the words ‘night’ into two syllables. His voice is deeper, more emotional. The song has a grander sound than some of his other work, but the lyrics are never lost in the shuffle. 

“I wrote ‘How Do You Sleep’ within a week of ‘This Town Still Thinks’ with Dan Fernandez and Michael Wentworth,” Ellis said. “It was the day of the eclipse and I went to buy glasses and it all just came together. It channels that rock vibe.”

Like many artists grappling with the change of pace, and pivoting their schedules, Ellis is getting used to writing sessions with co-writers via Zoom. He said he doesn’t trust himself to writing alone, and that he enjoys writing as a team. 

“My way of relaxing is generally just music,” Ellis, adding that he likes coffee, but does enjoy bourbon, said. “It’s like therapy. I’m just getting things off of my chest. I want to celebrate the happy times.”

Fans tuned into his social media / vlog writing series, Ross Writes, where he gave backstories and insights into new tracks. Ellis said he’s also taking advantage of his down time golfing more, reading Stephen King novels and of all things, digging into the legend of Bigfoot. Though he’s been able to spend time with his girlfriend in Oregon (not too shabby of a drive from Harry and the Hendersons’ Sasquatch encounter in the Cascade Mountains), it’s safe to say that Ellis has found his own footing in Nashville and penning songs. As he continues to make his own footprints in Music City, he’s open to giving advice to aspiring songwriters and musicians. 

“If you want to do it, it’s hard not to be in Nashville,” Ellis said. “It’s hard. If it makes you happy, do it. I can’t do anything else, I refuse to.”