Born and raised in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Caleb Elliott is far from your typical preacher’s son-turned-musician. With his father a pastor and his mother the church pianist, Elliott was immersed in traditional hymns from an early age, but it was his love for classical cello that would eventually jumpstart his musical career. While attending college in Lafayette, Elliott began playing 4-6 nights a week to support himself, your typical “covers gigs,” as he describes it. During this period of persistent gigging, he released his first EP of original songs in 2012, which had a surprising effect: now, everyone wanted him to play cello on their records.
As a session musician, Elliott began lending cello to all kinds of albums in the Lafayette music scene, culminating in a moment that would change his trajectory and finally move him out of Louisiana. In 2014, singer-songwriter Dylan LeBlanc met Elliott and encouraged him to relocate to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where he still resides today. Once settled in the Shoals, Elliott became the go-to cellist for an elite collective of collaborators such as Nicole Atkins, John Paul White, members of Alabama Shakes, Maggie Rose, and Cedric Burnside, whose 2021 record I Be Trying won a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album.
As a singer-songwriter, Elliott released his debut record Forever to Fade in 2019, followed by Weed, Wine & Time in 2023 (both via Single Lock Records). He has opened for a variety of artists such as Alabama Shakes, Gaz Coombes (Supergrass), Sean McConnell, The White Buffalo, Fruition, and The Secret Sisters (who are featured on his forthcoming single). This year, he follows up Weed, Wine & Time with two new singles, “I Don’t Believe You” and “Slow Burn,” in which sonic influences like Harry Nilsson and Louisiana’s own Bobby Charles can be heard woven throughout Elliott’s melodies and arrangements.
When he is not recording and touring his solo project, Elliott is an active co-writer, with writing credits on songs like Mary Gauthier’s “Thank God for You” and Billy Allen + The Pollies “It’s Okay,” which was recruited as the theme song for Netflix’s The Madness. Elliott’s own songs have been featured on the Showtime series Shameless and the Marvel series Daredevil: Born Again. More recently, Elliott has found a love for co-producing records with long-time collaborator Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes), shepherding in the next generation of folk artists. As a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, session musician, co-writer, and producer, Elliott invokes a studied and heartfelt multi-disciplinary approach to bringing songs to life.