Soul. Either you got it or you don't, no faking. If you're Ellis Hooks, you got your first dose picking peas in the fields of Alabama at the age of four, singing in the Baptist choir till they booted you out for learning the blues, living on the streets of New York and singing/sleeping wherever you could.
Not all of us got ours first hand, but that's how Ellis got his.
He embodies all of the finest aspects of Southern musical traditions and shows his roots like a 'lazy bottled blonde'. Ellis Hooks is a 'voice', a totally unique vocalist/songwriter the likes of which doesn't come around too often.