RORY Ellis is pushing the boundaries with his eighth album as he celebrates a new chapter and his love for his partner. One Skin demonstrates the diversity of Americana music as Ellis takes listeners on a journey woven through country, blues and folk and the ever-present chromatic harmonica. “The album, One Skin, is written about a new phase of my life – the first year of my relationship with my incredible partner, and all that makes her so very special,” he said.

One Skin is an album to be listened to carefully, with new discoveries on each song. “The songs all contain little mixed messages, but are predominantly centred around my love for my partner and her achievements, particularly on a personal level” he said. “She's very proud of the album and truly believes in me. My albums are often written around occurrences during a period of time and, as a songwriter, you're like a reporter, and the song is the article.”

“This is an album that I hope will awaken the spirits of the listener,” he said. “It is important to me as with all my albums, to have situations that will occur to other people. It may not always be apparent straight away, but when they listen to it, it becomes real to the point where the listener can often put themselves into the song.. The beauty of song writing is not to always hit somebody over the head with a message, it's often about delicately filtering a message through the songs.”

“Americana doesn't lock you into one genre; you're not a blues or rock or country artist,” Ellis said. “I can take the styles I love; being country, blues and folk, and meld them all into one.”

The title track is about Ellis’ journey to find love. “One Skin takes two hearts and wraps them together to form an unbreakable bond,” he said. “It’s the story of two people separated by distance, fear and the hurdles overcome to make their past relationship failures, traumas and loneliness a distant memory. This song will resonate with all people that have found a home for their hearts and truly know they are safe in the hands of that one person who loves them unconditionally.”

Livin’ The Dream is about the farm he lives on with his partner and all the aspects that go with it. “It's about the things that can often go wrong and conversely the funny things that also happen all in one day sometimes,” he said. “It is an idyllic and honest lifestyle, but the song is about all the associated hardships, pests, machinery breakdowns, and all the things that come with living in an old farmhouse and having that kind of lifestyle, all new to me.”

Ellis wants to highlight serious issues that he's witnessed, too. Who’s Your Daddy is a hard-hitting song that focuses on the effects that estranged fathers have on their partners and kids and the yearning from all to know why he isn’t there, and his realisation that he has been removed from their hearts, often by his own hand. He also tackles the issue of domestic violence. “Another Woman Down is about the overwhelming presence of domestic violence in our communities, and the treatment of women in that situation. We see it in the news more and more and it's one of those things that just shouldn’t happen. This is a song for the women who have been subjected to this.”