P. Gary Eller

Gary Eller has played American roots music since he grew up in rural West Virginia.  Following a thirty-year career as a nuclear scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, he retired to Nampa and immediately became deeply involved in Idaho history and music.  Since initial funding from the Idaho Humanities Council in 2007 and 2008, he has compiled about 200 historically rooted songs of our region and performs them at many events throughout Idaho.  Gary works closely with regional museums and universities to collect, archive, and bring to life through performance and interpretation the wonderful windows into Idaho’s heritage that these songs present. To date he has published eighteen thematic books with CDs based on these songs. Some themes for his Speaker’s Bureau program are listed below.