Eli Waltz

No one in Eli's childhood would characterize themself as an artist. There were doctors and lawyers and scientists. Not a single artist.

As a result, Eli had terrible taste in music. He idolized Rebelution. His mother accused him “smoking the pot” too much, and Eli took a break from music and drugs to reflect on his wrongdoings.

He developed a passion for much better music at 15, after a chance encounter with an acoustic guitar at Jewish summer camp.

He developed a fingerpicking style modeled on folk legends Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt, and draws upon the vocal stylings of Ray Lamontagne, Rachael Price and Billie Holiday. Old blues masters are enduring sources of inspiration—Muddy Waters, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker and Alan ‘Blind Owl’ Wilson are his teachers.

His studies brought him to China and wanderlust kept him there, working as a singer-songwriter and playing in a psychedelic Celtic rock group in Yunnan Province and Beijing.

Eli Waltz lives and performs in Washington, D.C.

His debut EP, Terracotta, will be released in 2021.