From a first glance, Eli Fox might seem like a normal 20-year-old college student at Belmont University. For Fox, though, his college story isn’t one that fits the normal narrative. Not only does Fox have a college school load on his plate, but he balances life in the music industry on top of it, hoping that one day the hard work will translate to a career on stage and in studios.  

Listening to Fox’s music, listeners might be refreshingly surprised to discover that his sound isn’t one that falls into an everyday genre heard today on radios and by younger artists. Fox’s passion for music was introduced to him before his teenage years, as he noted the first instrument he picked up was a banjo.  

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Eli Fox an adolescent prodigy. At the tender age of 20, he’s already a veteran musician, courtesy of an early album, EP, and his newest effort, “Or Something Like That,” which was released last month. With an interest in making music that began in his early teens, he’s nothing if not prodigious, as affirmed by the fact that he plays 10 instruments and writes all his own material.

East Tennessee’s Eli Fox is the latest artist to show that remarkable proficiency; at age 18, he’s setting his sites on college and, equally importantly, boasting his full length musical debut, the ironically dubbed Tall Tales. The follow up to an initial EP that came out last year, it finds Fox taking his cue from traditional Americana and, most strikingly, the wit and rapport of early Bob Dylan.

Singer-songwriter Eli Fox, who recently graduated from the Webb School of Knoxville and made his bones as the co-founder of bluegrass band Subtle Clutch, strikes most people who see him perform as a reincarnation of a young Dylan. From his vocal delivery to his staccato work on a harmonica rig while his thumb rolls across the banjo, he’s an ideal choice for the all-star tribute, although any sort of comparison is shrugged off by the young musician in his characteristic aw-shucks fashion.