Ethan Askey is creating original rock, rhythm and blues music in the Rocky Mountains of Canada, and reaching audiences around the world. An emerging songwriter on the international scene, he has served a long apprenticeship as studio session player and sideman to all sorts of projects but only recently has launched his exciting new project, Ethan Askey & the Elevators.
 
Known also by the nickname of “Shorty” in his musical circles, Ethan is not short in stature and he is not from the American south, despite being a blues harmonica player of some renown. He is more familiar with the MacKenzie River delta in the Canadian Arctic than with the Mississippi delta. He was practically born with a canoe paddle in one hand, and a harmonica in the other. And no matter whether he’s camped along a northern river or in the depths of the Grand Canyon, or having a hang in the salsa Caribbean or bohemian Czech Republic, he’s rarely without his chosen instruments.  He makes music in unlikely places with friends old and new.  

Since 1994 Ethan has played throughout western Canada; on legendary stages in Memphis and Chicago; and at festivals, theatres and clubs across Europe from the Alps to the Baltic Sea. With a wide diversity of independent artists he has collaborated in both live performance and studio session work. He has also been opener, guest, or supporting band member to some of world's most prominent blues artists: John Mayall (Bluesbreakers), John Primer (Muddy Waters), Lil' Jimmy Reed, Amos Garrett (Paul Butterfield's Better Days), Tim Williams and Robert Cray. Ethan in 2024 joined the ranks of some of Canada's finest in becoming a repeat instructor at the renowned Hornby Island Blues Workshops held annually on the west coast.

Ethan pulled together some of Canada's top musicians and friends to create his solo debut album. Walk When You Wanna Run is the title of his 2022 independent release, a collection of songs that one might categorize as modern blues. The title track recounts a visit he made to the south side Chicago home of Junior Wells (“godfather of blues”, bandmate of Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters), years after making his acquaintance at Calgary’s infamous King Eddy. Singing of stray bullets, fish delivery and bear country, he shares a pivotal experience in his personal journey as a musician and offers a fresh take on the funky urban electric blues that Junior Wells was known for. The album has had sustained play on public and commercial radio around the world, earning a place in the radio play charts for blues, contemporary blues, and alt-country music. 

Now, Ethan Askey & the Elevators have formed to create more new music. Purveyors of fine Rocky Mountain roots and boogies blues, in their electrifying live performance they can reinvent an '80s pop hit as a barn burner, and then transport audiences virtually to a Chicago club in the '60s with Howlin' Wolf. With a powerful sound driven by electric harmonicas and guitars, theirs is a contemporary blues band that colours outside the lines. They've lived a little, and they will draw you into tasty tales of faraway places, love gone wrong, and whistling past the graveyard. The fresh and often funky music they present on stage moves audiences in body and soul.