Kelly Joe Phelps - a style that's all his own

Kelly Joe Phelps -
“Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind”
live concert recordings
Rykodisc, 2004
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A few years ago on the Blues discussion groups on the internet (Blues-L), I was reading the occasional comment about this guy out in the Northwest who was a new phenomenon of the acoustic blues and slide guitar. It took me a while before I could get my hands on his first three albums, “Lead Me On“, “Roll Away The Stone”, and “Shine Eyed Mister Zen”.

Kelly Joe Phelps soon rose to popular acclaim and fame in Folk and Blues circles. While the first three albums were classic solo acoustic ventures, his next two albums became more complex and filled with additional instrumentation and personnel, which spoiled for me the intimate, immediate and personal nature of his music.
Now comes a new album that was recorded live, with only a man and his guitar – pure, bare, personal, meditative, lovely!

The album opens with a 10 minute rendition of the classic Nehemiah (Skip) James “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” and also includes a cover of the Rev. Gary Davis tune “I Am the Light of This World” (which has been identified with Jorma Kaukonen’s repertoire for the past 35 years).There are plenty of evocative and lyrical singer-songwriter folk numbers penned by Phelps, alongside the Blues numbers which are his forte.

Kelly Joe Phelps is a fine guitar picker as well as slide player, playing with the acoustic guitar on his lap. He also has a very pleasant mellow voice with just a hint of that smoky rasp of singers like Dave Van Ronk. This album is highly recommended for late night listening, meditation, or for those who love hearing lots of fine acoustic guitar fingerpicking…