Tawny Ellis 'EDGE OF THE WORLD' Interview
Acclaimed singer-songwriter Tawny Ellis released her sixth full-length studio album, EDGE OF THE WORLD, on June 20, 2025. A bold, emotionally charged return after five years, the album marks a period of creative rebirth and personal transformation for Ellis, delivering nine richly textured songs shaped by storytelling, sonic experimentation, and a lifetime of artistic pursuit.
Can you tell us about the theme or concept behind this album?
Heartfelt songwriting after a long series of setbacks, I found my voice again through these songs. I wanted to bring people together. I imagine people singing along with me as I wrote these songs. I just wanted to connect with people and share my stories. There’s a lot of personal stories in here.
What was your main inspiration for creating this album?
Love and communication.
What inspired you to create this album?
Because writing songs is my savior. I’m not able to really put into words how I feel most of the time with just words. I just want to express myself, and putting together stories and songs is the way that I can exist in this world in a peaceful way—to again communicate with people and hopefully touch them on a deep level.
How would you describe the sound and style compared to your previous work?
Well, this particular record was written on different instruments than I usually play, so that influenced the sound. I used the mountain dulcimer on three songs in the writing stage and my tenor guitar on the rest of the record. My past releases were written with my lap steel being the nucleus of the sound. Other projects were written with just a beat—I wrote songs over beats I would put together. I love discovering new instruments, and I feel that songs are deeply inside of them and want to come out if I put my attention on them. It’s a great discovery for me.
Are there any tracks that hold special meaning to you? Why?
They all speak volumes of who I am and where I’m at.
Some people I’ve lost and the long journey... and a song about where I come from—Sweet Georgia. Being born in Savannah, Georgia, I wrote this song as a reflection of maybe some not-so-great memories, but I turned them into something good in the song.
I also have another song called Terry that is about a very dear friend of mine who passed, and I was compelled to write a story about him.
I think the title track Edge Of The World holds something very personal—about how sometimes you wake up and feel like the world has passed you by. It’s about feeling like you’re on the edge and you don’t know if you’re going to fly or fall.
It’s a very personal song, but I think it's universal in its emotional gravity. There is an exquisite, beautiful performance on the song by Daniel Lanois, who is an incredible musician and a friend of mine who lent his talents to the track to make it all that it could be.
Did you collaborate with any other artists or musicians? How did those collaborations happen?
Well, being a musician for so long, I know so many of them, but I honestly gravitate toward the ones who tend to be really cool people. I was just so blessed that so many of them stepped up to help out when I wanted to essentially cast the roles of what I wanted on each of these songs.
The process was that I built these songs with just my instrument and my voice, and then we built layers on top of that.
Of course, it helped that I’m working with Gio Loria, who is also my husband, and we have been playing music for over 20 years together. With his help, we pulled the sound together and decided who else we wanted on the tracks. Gio and I produced the record together.
Were there any challenges or unexpected moments during production?
It was really just a delay in time. My husband and I also have a company called Black Volt Amplification. Gio is an incredible musician and producer, but also builds amplifiers and guitars, and it’s very demanding. I help him with that company as much as I can.
So, the process was I would write all the songs, but getting them recorded the way I wanted them to sound was a whole other level. Time was an issue.
We essentially worked seven days a week for over 2½ years. We had a lot of demands on us during the week with his company, so on the weekends we would go down into the studio and work on the recordings. It took over 2½ years to record this record. I’m just thrilled that it’s finally out there for people to hear it.
Can you share any interesting stories from the recording studio or tour?
My favorite story is about my friend Heather Ann Lomax, who is a very talented musician and writer. She knew I was writing a new record and she called me one morning and said she had a dream that she was to tell me to write a song with the words “night birds” and “moon sky eyes” in it.
I wrote the song and invited her to come and play on it and sing back-ups.
It’s a song about connecting and communing with someone, hoping that they understand you and that there’s freedom in that. It’s called Night Birds.
What message or emotion do you want to convey to your audience?
Community, dropping down our divisions, and loving one another regardless of our affiliations. I feel like we’ve lost that in our modern day.
My song Elephant is about that. The elephant in the room is whatever that elephant is to you—what is it that you’re not seeing? What is going on in your subconscious?
We need to address that and realize that we all have biases and we all shut down people that we don’t understand or who have different opinions.
But the elephant in the room is basically: love one another, be more accepting, have some nuance before you just cancel people out who have different thoughts.
How does this album reflect your personal growth as an artist?
Every album, every song is an elevation in my development. As an artist, I am playing instruments on every song on this record, and that’s not necessarily true for my past releases.
Were there any specific instruments or production techniques that shaped the sound?
The standout is the gorgeous solo on Edge of the World by Daniel Lanois.
He got a pedal steel and a piano on there—it’s innovative and stunning, in my opinion.
Are there any lyrical themes or narratives throughout the album?
There’s not one theme—it’s more just individual stories, but the thread is that they’re all coming from me in this time in my life, I guess.
What are your plans for promoting it? Can fans expect live performances or videos?
Yes, I have already released two videos for the singles that were released—Sweet Georgia and Flicker of the Flame.
We also have a beautiful video coming out when the record is released for Edge of the World that we shot in Big Sur, California.
As far as live shows go, we have a bunch lined up. I’m just not ready to announce all of it. Everyone will have to connect to my socials to be in the loop on that one.
If you could remix any song on the album, who would you feature?
Haha, I can’t even go there.
What advice would you give someone with a dream?
Meditate on it, visualize it, practice the meditation, and do the steps to be prepared when the chance comes your way.
Links
Website: tawnyellis.com
Instagram: @tawny_ellis
Twitter: @TAWNYELLIS
Facebook: facebook.com/tawnyellismusic
TikTok: @tawnyellis
Instagram (again): @tawny_ellis
Photography Credit
Adrianne Isom (headshot)
Tawny Ellis (album art)
Stereotype Co’s mission is to shine light on dreamers around the world.
Your support helps us continue make a difference.