Lindsay Ell grew up in Calgary, Alberta, where she began playing piano at six before discovering guitar at eight. By ten she was writing songs and performing locally.

At 13, she was discovered by Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, who produced her first album and helped her refine her songwriting and guitar technique. After graduating high school, she moved to Nashville, where she signed with Stoney Creek Records and in 2013 and released her debut single “Trippin’ on Us.”

Just four years later her LP The Project in 2017 topped Billboard’s Country Album Sales chart. The magazine called it “a confident and cohesive statement from a skilled guitarist and songwriter."

Ell joined Shania Twain’s touring band in 2023 as the legendary Canadian singer's lead guitarist through 2025. “Every night on stage with Shania is like a master class in how to make people feel seen. She gives everything to the crowd, and it changes how I think about performing,” she said last year in Country Now.

In late 2024, Ell released the EP love myself. Last month it was followed by fence sitter which contains the singles “Magic” and “The Other Side” in August. She stopped by the Setlist Studios to chat it up with Bree Wilde about "sangers," country music and checking out Metallica at the Saddledome.

Excited about fence sitter

Bree Wilde: What brings you to LA today?

Lindsay Ell: I'm so excited about this collection of songs. I feel like sonically as a musician and a songwriter I'm finally getting to make music that really feels representative of where my heart is and where my brain is and the music that I listen to and love so much, and as an artist, that feels really good to sort of align those things.

Bree Wilde: How did you get to the point where you're like, "Oh, this is the kind of music I want to make." Because I'm sure you've had people chirping in your ears for years.

Lindsay Ell: Yeah. I mean, I've been playing shows ever since I was 10 years old, so I grew up on the stage. And the stage, compared to anywhere else, really felt like home to me ever since I was little.

I started working with Randy Bachman from BTO and The Guess Who when I was 13 years old. And Randy was the one who introduced me to Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. And so as a young little blonde, white teenage girl, I would sit in my bedroom and be learning all of this blues, jazz, rock, guitar.

And then I moved to Nashville, gosh, 15 years ago now wanting to be a female John Mayer essentially and wanting to make a record that's like pop and has long guitar solos. And I got offered a country record deal and I was like, "Well, it's close enough."

I mean, country music is a very wide genre and it's close enough. I mean, if Sheryl Crow were to come out today, she would maybe be country. And so I just said yes and ran.

And truly running was what happened... And a decade flew by pretty much and I was so happy getting to play shows. It's my favorite thing to do in my whole life. Nothing brings me joy than live music and being able to share my songs on stage.

Writing and singing "sangers"

Bree Wilde: "good guy" is seemingly a beautiful song, but it's kind of a little ...

Lindsay Ell: I think maybe somebody else came up with this word, but I love writing "sangers." They're like sad bangers. It's like a sad song that makes you want to dance.

"good guy" is a song that I've wanted to write for a very, very, very long time. And I think that sometimes in life we go through things that we aren't able to talk about or aren't able to share a side of the story. And I feel that there's such an empowerment. There's such like a taking your power back to really step into your side and being able to voice that however you can.

I feel like you're able to access a newfound confidence that you would've never been able to feel if you didn't take that step into your own side of the story. And so "good guy" is a lot of me taking my power back and being like, "You know what? I had a perspective of this whole thing, too."

Metallica, The World Magnetic Tour, Saddledome, 2008

Lindsay Ell: My first concert ever. I mean, it's crazy to say my first concert ever was Metallica, but it's so true.

And yeah, 2008, the world just seemed so big and wild. And I had been playing piano. I just had started playing guitar. The first lick I learned on guitar was "Stairway to Heaven" and then probably within the next 10 licks I learned was Metallica. And so I was just so enthralled by cool things that you could play in guitar.

By the time Metallica hit the stage, the pot smoke was so thick that you couldn't even see Lars's drums. You couldn't see them. You could definitely hear them, but I was just like, "Why is there so much smoke in the arena?" And now looking back on it, I'm like this is the perfect first concert for me to be really eyes open into how exciting the world is.

And I remember hearing James Hetfield play the intro to "Nothing Else Matters" and my brain was just like, "Whoa, that is so cool." These worlds of artistry and songwriting and musicianship and all of that magic can come together in these messages that these four dudes have sold their soul so much into crafting.

And then thousands and thousands of people can sing them together at one time and I think I was just so captivated by that moment. And now, it's kind of funny that Metallica was my first concert because I wouldn't say I listened to a lot of metal at all, actually. But as a band, I respect Metallica so much. They care so much about every single thing they do, about everything that they release, about all of their fan experiences.

It's amazing to see them have been a successful band for as long as they have been and still continue to care about every single piece of their business.

Lindsay will be on the road beginning in January. Get tickets on her website.

The Fence Sitter Tour 2026

1/24 The Grace, London, United Kingdom
2/11 The Fox Cabaret, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2/13 Bella Concert Hall, Calgary, AB, Canada
2/26 The Basement East, Nashville, TN
2/27 Petit Campus, Montreal, QC, Canada
2/28 The Drake Underground, Toronto, ON, Canada
3/3 Baby’s All Right, New York, NY
3/24 The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA