Ellis Hooks, born in 1974 in Bay Minette, Alabama, is an American soul blues and electric blues singer and songwriter. Raised in a strict Baptist household as the thirteenth of sixteen children to a Cherokee mother and an African American sharecropper father, Hooks left his upbringing in his teens after discovering secular music on the radio. He hitchhiked across the United States and later lived in Europe, residing in Paris and Amsterdam, before relocating to New York City in his mid-twenties. While busking there, he met record producer Jon Tiven, who produced his debut album Undeniable. In 2003, Hooks headlined at the BBC's World Music Festival and opened for Terence Trent D'Arby. He also performed with Carla Thomas at the Montreux Jazz Festival. His 2003 album Up Your Mind was nominated for a Blues Music Award. Subsequent albums include Uncomplicated, The Hand of God (recorded in New York City and Nashville), Godson of Soul, and Another Saturday Morning.
