Tinsley Ellis has never been about showing off or getting rowdy for rowdy’s sake. His blues brand is brawny and resolute but it has heart and smarts. He prefers things simple, direct and listener-friendly: lyrical, wellframed but gutsy guitar lines that speak right at you without a need for flash, and songs that tell a story that anyone who’s lived a bit of life should relate to on first listen. Ice Cream in Hell continues along those lines: There’s plenty of dazzle, sure, but it’s never the main point. A song titled “Your Love’s Like Heroin” had better justify itself with a message worth considering, and it does: closing the album, it’s smooth and soulful, Ellis’ lead crystalline and cutting, the words shiver-inducing. “Your love’s like heroin and it’s killin’ me by degrees,” he sings. “I thought I could control it but it’s got a death grip on me.” The title track doesn’t merely chronicle a lost love the way a million other songs do: When Ellis sings “I won’t face another day puttin’ up with all of your crap/ When they serve ice cream in hell I’m going to take you back,” he leaves no doubt that this ill-fated relationship has melted. It’s not all weight-of-theworld stuff, though. Sometimes Ellis is content just to rock it up and let it all hang out. “Sit Tight Mama” is a churner—the guitarist’s solo is a nonstop explosion fed by glowing cinders—and the opening “Last One to Know,” with its Albert King-inspired guitar and sax/trumpet punctuation, is one man’s reminder that Memphis’ Stax Records once ruled the word.