Ellen Stapenhorst

Ellen Stapenhorst launched her enduring path as a singer, songwriter, and musician with modest coffeehouse appearances in the 1960s. She advanced into wider recognition by enlisting with Tanglefoot, the established Rocky Mountain ensemble, contributing bass, guitar, and fiddle across tours that spanned most of the 1970s.

Two decisive steps in 1982 took her away from Aspen to Sonoma County, where she devoted herself entirely to building a solo identity rather than entering another group. Five years later her debut album, The Dance, was captured at Radio City Music Hall Studios and included the tracks "Hold On Little One," "Feels Like Love," "Grand Junction," and "Hold Me Close."

Her follow-up, Invisible Threads, surfaced in 1995 on the Beachwood Records label. Across more than three decades of performance her largely original material fuses folk and bluegrass with passing elements of jazz and country. During that span she shared stages and sessions with Jackson Browne, Rod MacDonald, Crystal Gayle, Shawn Colvin, and Kenny Rogers.