Rob Ellen
The Medicine Show

Country Blues and Beyond.

The best of roots music from around the world, hosted by Rob Ellen --- Promoter Presenter and Publicist.

Rob Ellen has been involved in music development in Scotland for over 20 years and keeps a trial open around the Highlands in particular, for touring Roots Musicians Small Combos and Bands. Rob also tours many of The Medicine Show favorites around Europe through The Medicine Show On The Road www.medicinemusic.co.uk
The tour has become a pilgrimage with American Musicians in particular, wishing to trace the roots of "The Great American Song Book" back to its home in the Highlands, Rob says "I am fascinated by the song lines and tracing the roots of music, but equally fascinated with the contemporary shoots that keep it all alive and well".

The original Medicine Shows travelled the west until recent history selling snake oil remedies and featuring music and other entertainment's, Country pioneers Hanks Williams and Roy Acuff got their starts on Medicine Shows. Hank met his wife then Audrey Mae Sheppard, a farm girl from Banks, AL, in 1943 while he was playing a medicine show.

MEDICINE in the modern sense is perceived to be a treatment for ailment, but in the ancient sense particularly in the minds of Native Americans, medicine is all that is good in nature connecting the spirit world with the physical. The Medicine of music can be a direct connection with all it is to be human and also our best prescription for the disconnecting-ailments of our modern culture".