Tinsley Garners Cover/Featured Artist in Feb 2026 Vintage Guitar Mag
Ward Meeker, Editor-in-Chief of Vintage Guitar Magazine, interviews Tinsley about life, music, and (of course) all things vintage guitars and amps in the upcoming February issue. Meeker drills down through the layers to get at the heart of Tinsley's unique sound, his choices in instrumentation and especially his new artistic direction showcased on his second acoustic blues album, Labor of Love on Alligator Records.
"The work [Labor of Love] digs deep" writes Meeker "into the nuances of acoustic blues, inspired by a trip to Bentonia, Mississippi, where he was immersed in camaraderie and the local music from spirituals and Hill Country to Delta blues via John Lee Hooker, Fred McDowell, Skip James, Tommy Johnson, R.L. Burnside and Son House's "Clarksdale Tuning." He poured it all into the new songs."
Look for a copy of Vintage Guitar Magazine at your local retailer or online by subscription later this January.
Alligator Records Announces Tinsley's LABOR OF LOVE Album
On Friday, January 30, 2026, Atlanta-based blues guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Tinsley Ellis will release Labor Of Love, his second acoustic album (after 2024's Blues Music Award-nominated Naked Truth), and first acoustic album to contain all original material. The album will be available on CD, Georgia peach-colored vinyl LP and at all digital service providers. The first single from the album, the powerful Hoodoo Woman, premieres today, along with a striking new video directed by filmmaker Troy Bieser.
With Labor Of Love, Ellis delivers a raw, edgy, self-produced set of 13 original compositions, all performed with pure emotional honesty. The songs spin modern tales of floods, conflagrations, voodoo spirits, personal travails and heaven-sent prayers. From the feral opener Hoodoo Woman to the John Lee Hooker-groove of Long Time to the evocative, Skip James-inspired To A Hammer to the Son House-style stomp of Sunnyland, Ellis inhabits his songs in a way that is simply astonishing.
