Tinsley Ellis Brings More Than a Show to District Live

July 29, 2026

Georgia Grown

Some interviews are carefully planned. Others wander into places you never expected. My conversation with Tinsley Ellis somehow landed in both.

We started talking about music, the Allman Brothers, and the stories that have followed him through a career spanning nearly five decades. Then, somewhere between Savannah memories and life on the road, Ellis casually mentioned he had been writing a new song that very morning.

Not just any song.

A song called “Georgia Grown.”

Sometimes interviews happen in coffee shops. Sometimes they’re over Zoom. This Zoom happened while I was riding a train from Norway into Sweden. Somewhere between the forests outside my window and Ellis sitting in Georgia, he casually mentioned he had been writing a new song that very morning.

“I am writing a song in the tradition of early acoustic blues,” Ellis says. “The name of the song is actually Georgia Grown.”

The music was finished. The lyrics were not.

“I have put the music to it, and now I’ve got to write the words,” he says. “That’s the hardest part.”

So naturally, I asked what came to mind.

Ellis laughed before revealing the idea that had just crossed his head moments before our phone rang.

“I just think it’d be cool to say something like… it’s a Georgia guy talking to a woman from out of state. And the guy is saying, ‘Leave him alone. It’s time you tried some Georgia Grown.'”

“I’m in,” I told him. “I’m sold.”

He laughed.

“That way, when I perform it, I can say when I wrote this song, I was talking to a guy in Sweden.”

I reminded him I wasn’t quite there yet.

“I’m actually crossing into Sweden right now.”

“Well,” he laughed, “maybe it’s about a girl from Sweden. But no… it’s got to be about a man from Georgia.”

The conversation wandered from there, just like a good blues song should.

Ellis talked about Scandinavia, where he’s performed several times.

“They love American music, and they love music from the American South.”

Then it drifted back to Savannah, a city he’s been visiting since the 1970s.

“I’ve been playing Savannah since the 1970s, specifically on River Street,” he says. “Some of my favorite times were at a club called the Night Flight Cafe back in the early 1980s. It was a small room, and we played long, late shows. It was a great time.”

Nearly fifty years later, those memories still bring him back.

“We keep the spirit of the Night Flight Cafe going every show I do in Savannah. I’ll see people from that era there, and it’s always great. It’s one of my favorite times of my whole career.”

On Friday, August 14, Ellis returns to Savannah, this time at District Live inside Plant Riverside District.

There’s little doubt he’ll bring plenty of stories with him.

Maybe he’ll even bring a finished version of “Georgia Grown.”

And if he introduces it by telling the crowd he got the idea while talking to a guy crossing from Norway into Sweden, you’ll know exactly how that story began.

Show Details:

Tinsley Ellis brings his “Labor of Love” Tour to District Live at Plant Riverside District on Friday, August 14, at 8 p.m. The intimate seated concert takes place at 400 W. River Street in Savannah. Tickets generally start around $29 to $40 and are available through Ticketmaster or directly through Plant Riverside District.