Eli M Marcus

Canadian born ex-pat living in Israel. KNown in the music community as "Dr. Blues" because of my encyclopedic knowledge of the history and the artists of the Blues. I am a guitarist (primarily acoustic finger-style and slide), a singer, a Blues radio show host, and a festival and music event promoter and consultant, as well as the founder/chairman of the Israel Blues Society.

 ...It was just past midnight, in a dark and empty room in downtown Toronto,  Canadian Blues and Jazz artist Champagne Charlie  was teaching me some of my first Ragtime guitar licks. He was seated on a chair we had just picked up in the street, and I was sitting on my guitar case, lapping up the music...
I guess that's when I got really serious about the Blues.
....or maybe it was that Blind Blake LP that I found standing alone in a store-rack on Harvard Avenue in Boston when I was 15 years old - for the price of 59 cents! 

Early on, I felt that my mission in life is to help perpetuate the Blues, to help others understand the beauty that is the Blues, and to keep it alive.
Over the years I have worked at promoting my musician friends in any way I can.
I ran the Fingerboard folk coffee-house in Toronto in the late 1970's, and organized a number of small Blues and Jazz concerts to help expose my musician friends to University of Toronto audiences (as I completed my BSc. degree).
I spent a few years as a freelance photographer and journalist,   interviewing and reviewing my favorite artists for local newspapers or magazines, including rare interviews with artists who refused to speak to the commercial press. 

Gear

• 1931 National Resophonic Triolian
• Taylor 310 CE 6 string acoustic
• 1978 Fender Telecaster Electric
• Harley Benton Resophonic

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