Acclaimed roots music artist William Lee Ellis is a fingerpicking stylist and songwriter versed in acoustic blues and gospel guitar styles, notably the music of Rev. Gary Davis. His latest album, Ghost Hymns, is a Blues Music Awards nominee for Acoustic Blues Album of the Year and has been hailed as one of 2023’s best by Downbeat and Blues Music magazines, among other publications. 

Writes Acoustic Guitar, Ellis is a “masterful genre-bender who sounds completely at home and thoroughly invested in whatever style he tackles.” 

The son of banjo/fiddle composer Tony Ellis, William holds a PhD in ethnomusicology and is a guitar instructing alum of Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch and Augusta Blues Week. He is Chair of Fine Arts at Saint Michael’s College.

2024 City Hall Park programming is underwritten by the Pomerleau Family Foundation and the WaterWheel Foundation. Media sponsor, Seven Days. The Summer Concert Series has support from American Flatbread Burlington Hearth and City Market, Onion River Co-op.