Baby Grand is a folk-adjacent 3-piece band consisting of Haley Ellis on banjo and keys, her brother Colby Ellis on guitar, and drummer Cody Wade. Check’er Lee is their fourth self-produced album and is available on CD and all major streaming platforms.

Baby Grand is a family band featuring yourself and your brother Colby Ellis on guitar, along with Cody Wade on drums. Have you and your brother always played music together?

Short answer, no. We started playing together around 2018 when we lived together in a house in the Southside of Richmond, Virginia. I started playing piano heavily at that time and as I learned how to play, Colby insisted that we started recording. Cody Wade started playing with us about two years ago.

And it’s a bluegrass band as well. What attracts you to that style of music?

We’ve always liked old music, and most of our sound is inspired by that. Anywhere from Blind Willie McTell and Woody Guthrie to Ray Charles or Blaze Foley, we like an honest sound. Bluegrass is fun.

Haley, in addition to Baby Grand, you also have a career as a solo artist. How is playing in a band different from being on your own?

Playing in a band can be a lot more stressful in preparation, but it’s more rewarding to play with my friends on stage. Being alone means I don’t have to rely on anyone, but it also means all my mistakes are front and center.

There’s a distinct sense of humor in your songs. Why might humor and bluegrass travel well together? 

Music aside, there’s space for humor everywhere. We had a somewhat tumultuous childhood, and we learned to laugh through anything. Bluegrass carries it well, I think, because of how upbeat it is. Almost every song we write has some light and some dark in it.

Do you have a particular approach to songwriting, or is it always different? 

(Colby): I honestly have no approach to songwriting, whenever a song is ready I just sort of vomit it out. 
(Haley): I like analogies and wordplay a lot. Usually I write when I’m angry or anxious, and I think about how I’m feeling, then compare it to an image I have in my head.

The commercial you made for your new album Check’er Lee is funny, too. Whose idea was that, and how did it come together?

Our mom used to have an album called “Monster Ballads” she listened to in the car. It had bands like Poison, Alice in Chains, Faster Pussycat, etc. and we would make fun of it. But the commercials for those late 90’s hit collections became weirdly integral for some reason, and now they are nostalgic in a way we had to include. We hired Jeff Knight from Richmond VA to record 5 music videos in one day, and used the footage from those to put it all together.

You’ve written that Check’er Lee is about your struggles with navigating the modern world. What are some challenges that the modern world poses, and what do you do to overcome them? 

The world feels isolating, expensive, soulless, and filled with corporate garbage. This album is about us coping with it, not overcoming it. Lower Management was my way of feeling better about an old landlord garnishing my wages. It describes orientation at the first day of work at the DMV in Hell. Nobody was a way to cope with having no one around by making up a fictional character named Nobody.

The album is self-produced. Where did you record it, and what’s your setup like?

Colby started recording music in his bedroom in maybe 2010, then went to audio-engineering school near Nashville, TN in 2013. The studio has changed many times; we recorded FeelBad RagTime on opposite sides of the country when I (Haley)  lived in Phoenix, AZ. At this point, the studio has taken over two-thirds of my house in Vance County. We are a small operation, calling ourselves “PorchDog Records” and have started projects for a few other artists (Elijah Righter, The Hundley Brothers, Luke Schofield) at this point. We have an 8-input Behringer UMC we use with Studio One, and if we want to add in any analog tape sound we’ll run through my MT4X.

Do you have any plans to take the album on the road?

Once Colby can move back from Georgia early 2026, we’d love to do some sort of touring. I just got back from networking in Asheville, and I burn myself out constantly trying to meet new people to share our music with. In short, yes, we’re working on getting something together.

What’s on the horizon for you?

We’ve been a studio band for a long time but we’re going to dedicate ourselves more to playing live shows and really taking a crack at this whole “music scene” thing.