Wendy Eisenberg with Eli Winter

A self-taught guitarist and native Houstonian, Eli Winter (b.1997) has been praised as a “generational talent” (NYCTaper) for his instrumental music, which has received praise from outlets like Pitchfork, The Guardian, Stereogum, and NPR. Across five LPs and counting for Three Lobed, American Dreams and Worried Songs, Winter’s music maintains a waggish disregard for genre constraints emblematic of Chicago, his adopted hometown. Performing solo, as a duo partner, or as a bandleader, Winter’s concert history spans prestigious music festivals, pristine listening rooms, laundromat bars and small rooms in shotgun houses. He’s collaborated with artists like Yasmin Williams, jaimie branch, Mike Watt, Ryley Walker, Cameron Knowler, Tyler Damon, David Grubbs, Jordan Reyes, Asher White; and shared bills with artists like Steve Gunn, Quadeca, Amanda Pascali, Fennesz, Thalia Zedek, Eileen Myles. He received the David Blair McLaughlin Prize in Nonfiction from the University of Chicago. His essays and criticism have been published in The Economist, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Texas Highways, the Brooklyn Rail; and he’s often written liner notes for the American Dreams label. He was a 2024 Ox-Bow Resident and 2022 Ragdale Resident, and is a 2021 Luminarts Fellow in Creative Writing.