Musician lands top music awards

A singer-songwriter from Horncastle has expressed his delight at winning two top awards at a national music festival.
Elliott Morris EMN-210112-144744001Elliott Morris EMN-210112-144744001
Elliott Morris EMN-210112-144744001

Elliott Morris returned to Sardinia and has received a further two prizes at Italy’s premier world music festival.

Elliott returned to perform at the Andrea Parodi World Music Festival in Cagliari, Sardinia, where in 2019 he won the ‘Best Music’ accolade at the only Italian World Music Contest.

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He was shortlisted as one of just eight finalists, before winning two awards – ‘Best Performance/Interpretation’, and the prize awarded by the young audience members.

The festival, which ran from Friday 12 to Saturday 13 November, honours the late Sardinian singer Andrea Parodi, who evolved from making pop with the band Tazenda to a remarkable solo career in which he recreated traditional roots music.

Elliott is the only UK artist to have played the festival, and he took to the main auditorium stage on consecutive nights at the festival’s prestigious new home, the Teatro Civico di Si’e Boi in Selargius.

Italian national television and radio broadcast these performances which were also live streamed worldwide. Elliott performed alongside artists not just from Italy, but finalists from Spain, Cuba, Tunisia and the USA.

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“It was an honour to be invited back,” Elliott said, “For the second time, I found myself among some of the most talented musicians I’ve had the pleasure to share a stage with, in front of wonderful audiences. I was happy just being a part of it again, and was not expecting one, let alone two awards! I also enjoyed the challenge of arranging of one of Parodi’s songs to play on alongside my own material.”

“Working with a translation of his words, and distilling a full band rock track down to one acoustic guitar and voice was quite the task, but also a really fun way of working.

“I’ve recently discovered that Parodi collaborated a number of times with the guitarist Al Di Meola. As it happens, Di Meola is a big influence on my playing, and coincidentally our instruments are made by the same man – Roger Bucknall of Fylde Guitars in Penrith, Cumbria.

Not letting the pandemic slow his momentum, over the last year, Elliott has livestreamed gigs and started working on a collaboration album with fiddle player Henry Webster.

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In June 2021,as restrictions lifted, Elliott, along with Henry and drummer Jack Carrack, filmed a very special recording session in Jimi Hendrix’s bedroom at his London flat.

He added: “One of the biggest things I missed during lockdown was hearing live music and playing with other musicians. I’ve come away from the festival incredibly inspired, and plans are afoot for a few collaborations with artists I met last weekend.”

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