Days of yore, holiday drives to grandma’s house and Arizona highways are among the topics that Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s official State Balladeer, has captured in his songs about the state.  

“Historians write the history, but balladeers bring it to life,” Dolan said during a visit to ADOT, when the agency’s Video Team recorded his rich baritone as he performed three of his ballads, "Scrubby," "Rock Springs" and "I-10 Highway."

Two of these songs have ties to the holiday season, making this a good time to revisit and share Ellis' melodies.

“Scrubby”

While we’re not certain of Scrubby’s condition these days, for more than three decades, the cedar tree in the median of Interstate 17 at Sunset Point has thrilled passersby with holiday finery secretly applied in the middle of the night. With its glowing lights, ornaments and tinsel, it has become a shining beacon of seasonal spirit for motorists.

Perhaps no Arizonan has captured this mystery better than Ellis in this ode to an evergreen. It begins:

Out in Arizona there’s a story to be told. 
Of Scrubby, the little cedar tree, that grows beside the road. 
I-17 to Flagstaff, from the desert down below, 
And a random act of kindness by some secret, caring soul. 

It brings a smile to every face that passes by that sight. 
Scrubby becomes a rock star, and for him this song I write. 

 “Rock Springs” 

In the mid-1950s, it could take eight hours to travel by car from Flagstaff to Phoenix. This song, written by Dean Cook, Lon Austin, and Tony Norris, is about family’s holiday trip to Phoenix, with the children, the dog and grandma's tree in the back – before Interstate 17 Black Canyon Freeway was completed in 1978. 

"Rock Springs" tells of a meandering route through Oak Creek Canyon, the Cleopatra Mine, Mayer and Bumble Bee. Much of this was along the Old Black Canyon Highway, scratched out of the 1878 Black Canyon stagecoach trail. It begins:  

It was snowing up in Flagstaff but we knew that the desert would be hot. 
So we crawled beneath the blankets. The dog always got the warmest spot, woof woof. 
It was 2 days to Christmas and we crawled into the back of dad’s old truck. 
Eight hours down to Phoenix -- if we didn’t run out of water, tires or luck. 

“I-10 Highway”

This song is a nostalgic journey, as Ellis recalls a trip along Interstate 10 to Tucson, where he passes farmers and reminisces about a sense of community and purpose. He also waxes historic about the instantly-recognizable Picacho Peak. 

It begins: 

Arizona I-10 Highway, there’s a trucker going my way, play a tune in the afternoon with a guitar that I carry on my back. 
I can see the sign to Tucson, from the freeway that I ride on, telling me all the sights to see down in Tucson, that are long gone with each puff from a diesel stack. 
As I pass the irrigation roads (and) crops some Pima farmer grows, folks flipping by like the pages of a worn-out history book. 
And the story that it seems to tell the pride of his work in a job done well and the cooperation of a reservation full of neighbors and the labors of his people (that it took).  

Ellis has been writing and performing songs about Arizona, its people, heritage, culture, wildlife and beauty, since 1959. Learn more about the State Balladeer, by reading these blog posts: 

Arizona's official balladeer celebrates I-17 Mystery Tree

State balladeer croons nostalgic over 'I-10 Highway'

State balladeer sings of drive from Flagstaff

Learn more about Ellis, his performance schedule, history and songs at DolanEllis.com. You can also learn about the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, which Ellis founded to preserve songs celebrating Arizona’s western heritage and culture, at ArizonaFolklore.com. 

It’s hard to imagine a time before a modern Interstate 17 Black Canyon Freeway could carry travelers from Phoenix to Flagstaff.

But Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s official balladeer for more than 50 years, croons a song of what it was like before the Black Canyon Freeway connected the two cities to a time when it took 8 hours to make the trip.

Those days of yore, circa the mid-1950s, are captured in a song he likes to perform called “Rock Springs,” an homage to a family’s holiday pilgrimage from Flagstaff down to Phoenix. Children rode in the back of a pickup truck along with the tree for grandma and the dog. The song was written by Dean Cook, Lon Austin, and Tony Norris. 

The song begins:

It was snowing up in Flagstaff but we knew that the desert would be hot.

So we crawled beneath the blankets. The dog always got the warmest spot, woof woof.

It was 2 days to Christmas and we crawled into the back of dad’s old truck.

Eight hours down to Phoenix --  if we didn’t run out of water, tires or luck.

The ballad tells of a meandering route through Oak Creek Canyon, the Cleopatra Mine, Mayer and Bumble Bee. Much of this was along the Old Black Canyon Highway, scratched out of the 1878 Black Canyon stagecoach trail.

Construction on today's I-17 started in 1956, and wasn't finished in northern Arizona until August 1978. In 1978, the minimum wage was $2.65, Home Depot was founded and "Night Fever," by the Bee Gees, was the top song.

From the shade of Oak Creek Canyon up to the Cleopatra Mine

A second breakfast down in Mayer on Highway 69 .

It’s a dusty road to Cordes then on down to Bumble Bee.

Ah we are heading down to Grandma's and we brought the Christmas Tree.

Back then, motorists more often than not would stop in Rock Springs to fill their radiators and bellies with the water the place is named for. The pies that now draw motorists off the freeway came much later. 

The song’s chorus reflects the tradition:

And we’ll stop at old Rock Springs, where the water flows so clean

Cool water in the desert was a thirsty traveler's dream.

And we’d stop at old Rock Springs, where the water flows so clean

Cool water in the desert was a thirsty traveler's dream.

However, in the final chorus, the first line reflects the new main Rock Springs attraction:  

And we’ll stop at Old Rock Springs, for that pie we love so dear.

To listen to Dolan as he croons about this delightful trip please watch the video. Arizona Department of Transportation photographers, videographers and writers were fortunate to have the opportunity to record three songs performed by Ellis when he visited the ADOT studio in December 2019. This song was one of those. Another was about the "I-10 highway." 

Ellis fell in love with "Rock Springs" when he heard it performed in 2003 and decided it should be part of his repertoire. Ellis has written 100s of songs since crossing the Arizona state line with his pregnant wife in 1959, making a childhood dream come true.

During his storied career, Ellis has performed before millions of people -- including hundreds of thousands of Arizona school children -- won a Grammy Award as a member of the New Christy Minstrels and been inducted into the AZ Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame, among many other career highlights.

Another dream come true for Ellis was the founding of the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, which preserves songs celebrating Arizona’s heritage and culture.

You can learn more about it at ArizonaFolklore.com.

You can learn more about Ellis, his performance schedule, history and songs at DolanEllis.com.

“Historians write the history, but balladeers bring it to life.”

So says Dolan Ellis, Arizona’s official state balladeer, who has spent more than 60 years bringing Arizona to life through song.

Ellis performed a few numbers and answered questions about his musical career during a visit late last year to ADOT, including a tribute we've already shared to the I-17 Mystery Tree, which he calls "Scrubby." At right is a video with another of his songs, "I-10 Highway," which Ellis wrote in the 1970s.

“The road between Tucson and Phoenix, it was paved, but it was very, very narrow, and it went through all these little towns like Chandler, which was a tiny white spot on the road, and Coolidge, and all these places,” Ellis says as he sets up the song, which includes these verses:

“Arizona I-10 Highway, there’s a trucker going my way, play a tune in the afternoon with a guitar that I carry on my back.”

“I can see the sign to Tucson, from the freeway that I ride on, telling me all the sights to see down in Tucson, that are long gone with each puff from a diesel stack.”

“As I pass the irrigation roads (and) crops some Pima farmer grows, folks flipping by like the pages of a worn-out history book.

And the story that it seems to tell the pride of his work in a job done well and the cooperation of a reservation full of neighbors and the labors of his people (that it took).”  

There’s also a verse about Picacho Peak and its history as the site of an 1862 clash between Union and Confederate forces that was the westermost battle of the Civil War.

Ellis isn’t an Arizona native but a transplant from Kansas, where he grew up on a small farm south of Lawrence. He became determined to make Arizona his home when at the age of 6 he saw pictures in National Geographic magazine.

“I was fascinated about the plants, cowboys, Indians and mining,” he said.

He made his Arizona dream come true in 1959 after graduating from college, driving across the state line with his wife by his side.

His first job was in communications at KOOL-TV, which is now KSAZ-TV. He brought his guitar, and during down time, like right after news broadcasts, he would sing and play in the empty Studio B.

His hard work and talent led to coffee house gigs around and beyond Arizona, and he became an original member of the New Christy Minstrels, the legendary folk group.

In 1966, Ellis became Arizona's first official state balladeer, a designation proffered by Governor Sam Goddard.

You can learn more about Ellis, his performance schedule, history and songs at DolanEllis.com. You can also learn about the Arizona Folklore Preserve in Ramsey Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains, which Ellis founded to preserve songs celebrating Arizona’s western heritage and culture, at ArizonaFolklore.com.