RIFFS
My Life in Five Riffs
Lindsay Ell reveals the songs that shaped her fierce blues shred.
B Y J I M B E A U G E Z
P H O T O G R A P H B Y J . B . L A W R E N C E
AS A COUNTRY music songwriter and frontwoman, Lindsay Ell can sing and perform with the best of them. But as a guitar player, she can mop the floor with half of Nashville. Ell fell in love with the blues as a teenager and toured with Buddy Guy at age 18, then spent much of the next decade honing her chops in bars across Canada and the U.S. before breaking through in Music City with 2017’s The Project and 2020’s Heart Theory (Stony Creek). Here are the top five riffs that influenced her guitar playing.