Arizona is the first and only state to appoint an Official State Balladeer, and one man has dedicated his life to capturing the essence of Arizona by traveling around the state, writing and collecting stories and songs of landmarks and legends.
Dolan Ellis, Arizona Official State Balladeer, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the passion behind his new memoir “Adventures of a Balladeer.”
Ellis also founded the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Ramsey Canyon, a venue committed to keeping Ellis’ dreams of celebrating legacies of our state alive.
“To me, there is a drama going on in the desert that if a person listens to it and watches it and gets to know it and knows how it works, you could relate it to your own life, and it can give you answers to your own life,” Ellis said. “I think I’m a better song writer today than I’ve ever been. I think, again, life has done that for me.”
Ellis was born and raised in Kansas before moving to Arizona in 1959. He mentions on his website he was always drawn to Arizona, and “it seems like a homecoming” once he was finally able to move here. Not long after his arrival, he was appointed Arizona State Balladeer by Governor Sam Goddard in 1966.
Ellis said he wrote his book to help others follow their own dreams and listen to their “inner maps” instead of following the maps of other people.
“It’s [the book] about following your dream and finding your ‘hozho,’ is the word. It’s a Navajo word,” Ellis said. “It means to be at harmony with nature and the universe.”
