Eli Winter is a composer, self-taught guitarist, essayist, and Houston native. His music synthesizes aspects of folk, rock, jazz, and devotional music, maintaining a waggish disregard for genre constraints emblematic of Chicago, his adopted hometown. Across five LPs and counting for labels like Three Lobed and American Dreams, the scope of his music has grown to include guitar soli, instrumental duets, and bandleading. He’s collaborated with a wide range of artists live and on record, including Yasmin Williams, Jaimie Branch, David Grubbs, Cameron Knowler, and Ryley Walker, and leads a trio featuring Chicago musicians Sam Wagster (pedal steel guitar) and Tyler Damon (drums).

Eli’s concert history further spans prestigious music festivals such as Primavera Sound and Big Ears, pristine listening rooms, laundromat bars, and small rooms in shotgun houses. In music and prose, Winter’s writing often considers subjects including memory, grief, endurance, literature, and trauma. He has written about touring, literature, illness, and the lives of working artists for the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Economist, and others, and has frequently written liner notes for the American Dreams label.