(photo courtesy of Burnside Records)
(photo courtesy of Burnside
Records)
1994 Best Traditional Blues Act
1998 Best Regional Blues Act
Article Reprint from the September 1996
BluesNotes
Article by Rick Hall
Local musician Kelly Joe Phelps is definitely "on the move" when it comes to his chosen career. Kelly is doing exactly what he had pictured himself doing as a child; playing music. Kelly Joe Phelps is an acoustic Bluesman partaking in a resurgence of Country Blues through a renewed interest in Folk music mainly via the younger crowd, a movement much akin to the one that happened in the '60s. That movement brought many Country Blues players to the forefront then and it seems to be recycling again. These younger fans haven't heard this kind of Folk and Country Blues very much (if any) and it is as appealing to them now as it was to the young people in the '60s.
Bluesmen like Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Skip James and a host of great Bluesmen benefited then. Who knows who'll benefit from the most recent focus on Folk and Country Blues. There's a number of deserving players out there that haven't really had any exposure yet. But, there are several players rising to the top. Players such as: Alvin Youngblood Hart, Keb' Mo, Corey Harris and Kelly Joe Phelps. It really is a double barreled appeal because not only the younger, newer fans of this style of music, but also a great many "die-hard" Folk and Country Blues fans that are still around from all sorts of earlier influences dating back to the '60s and many from long before that. This kind of music is simply a slice of Americana and is handed down from generation to generation.
Kelly Joe Phelps grew up here in the Northwest and had an attraction for music as a young child. Like many of us, he beat out rhythms on the pots and pans while playing around the house as a child. But, unlike many of us, he took his interest in those rhythms to far greater heights.
Kelly Joe's dad was a musician who played piano and guitar. "He played sort of a Boogie-Woogie style of piano and Country guitar. Those things kinda fused together for me as a result of his influence," relates Kelly Joe. "I identify as much with Folk music and Hillbilly music as I do with Blues ... it's a combination of things which I really got from my dad. I didn't feel emotionally at home with my music until about six or seven years ago, however. I dabbled a little with the style that I play now, but I had a lot of other musical styles as well," says Phelps.
Kelly Joe Phelps is a unique stylist in that he plays an acoustic guitar in his lap with a slide bar while singing in a low tone hypnotic vocal pattern. It's captivating and very distinctive from a
fan's perspective. "Yea. I play a little different than most Country Bluesmen these days," states
Phelps. "That style used to be much more common early on, especially with the Hillbilly players. In early Country Blues they played slide guitar both on the lap and the Bottleneck style, grasping the instrument in the traditional mode."
Phelps started out playing the Bottleneck style because of his attraction to the sound of the slide guitar. He approached the lap-playing style only through experimentation and found the sound to be to his liking.
Kelly Joe says, "I responded to the sound of the lap style of playing because of the "country
sweetness" I heard in playing the guitar this way ... the slide is a little heavier resulting in a tone that is broader and sweeter than Bottleneck guitar."
Kelly Joe has stuck with that special style and performs only the lap acoustic in
his shows these days.
In the early '90s, Kelly Joe played the local scene in Portland as much and as hard as anyone around, doing any gig he could garner. His music was in the developmental stages, but limited to the quantity of his material. Getting favorable responses to the quality of his performances, Phelps started writing songs to meld with cover tunes he was mastering of some of the great Country Blues legends. It was out of bits and pieces of their styles that Kelly Joe developed his own sound and incorporated his unique style. His singing voice is very different than his spoken voice. It's lower and has a drawl. He says that he's become very comfortable with it as time has gone on. "Maybe a way to describe it is that I forget I'm actually singing at times. It's become second nature with the guitar playing. It's kind of a weave," states Kelly Joe.
In 1994 Kelly Joe got a huge break. He caught the interest of Terry Currier (co-owner of Music Millennium in Portland) who was involved in the upstart of Burnside Records. Kelly Joe recorded his first significant recording (he had done a couple of self-produced cassettes prior to that) for the Burnside label, titled "Lead Me On", and through their distribution network Kelly Joe became noticed, not just here in the Northwest, but around the country. He received many favorable reviews in Blues publications, but more significantly, radio airplay on Blues stations. "That recording on Burnside was definitely a big thing for me. It set everything I'm doin' now in motion," states Phelps. It was because of that recording that Kelly Joe started getting invitations to play at festivals and gigs around the country. He has even been to Europe playing his music.
This summer Kelly Joe Phelps is playing or has played festivals clear across the country. Some of those festivals around the country include: The Monterey Blues Festival, The Eureka Springs Festival, The Pocono Blues Festival, The Waterfront Blues Festival (right here in Portland), The Philadelphia Folk Festival, and many others. It's been a tremendous success story for a hard working man doing what he loves to do and having people everywhere respond so favorably to it. He is now being represented by a booking agency (Mongrel Music) who is adding stability to his growth and rise in popularity.
Kelly Joe knows that he's very fortunate and that releasing a recording, getting positive response, and touring and working regularly is exactly according to a textbook plan and is supposed to be what happens; unfortunately, for most, it simply doesn't happen like that! On the other hand, Kelly Joe is very talented and he is worthy of his successes and continued growth. He is mature enough to handle his success and knows that he is doing is his life's work. He loves to play. Kelly Joe says, "I really enjoy the success in two ways. First, I'm playing on a level where I get to experience some great musicians and many times get to know them and play with them. Second, I'm getting a chance to travel. Its something I've really never done before and I really enjoy it. I've been to Europe, across Canada and all over this country." Kelly Joe even did 16 dates on the same bill as B.B. King. He also has hooked up on several shows with the rising Country Bluesman Keb' Mo'. They've become friends and have crossed paths in their travels, most of the time playing a song or two together when playing on the same bill. Phelps says, "It's one of those great stories. We met in Philadelphia in '95. He'd heard about me and Id heard about him. We shook hands and went up to my hotel room and played until the sun came up." They even did a show earlier this summer at The Washington Park Zoo Concert Series.
Dave Alvin is another musician Kelly Joe has hooked up with in an acoustic setting. "He's got this really heavy serious Folk side to him. We were on the same bill for a bunch of shows and I had a chance to sit-in and play with him. He's a fantastic acoustic musician. It was really nice," says Phelps.
With his touring schedule Kelly Joe's local gigs are very limited these days. From time to time he does a few shows at
Cafe Lena, a place he cut his teeth on in the early '90s. He also does a few special outdoor concerts in the summer, but he uses his
off time at home in Vancouver (Washington) to recuperate from the road tours, to write new material, practice, and spend some time catching up on a little
reading. Kelly Joe says, "By taking' time off when I'm home, I'm more focused and come prepared and ready to play when I'm on the road. Being a solo act, everything is very intense when I play. It's just me and the crowd and I have to be into that. It is a concentrated effort. It's a very intimate thing vying to relate to the audience, but I love it!"
Kelly Joe has just worked out a deal with another label and is anticipating getting started on a new recording in a few months. He has built up a head of steam coming off a very successful summer and is looking towards fall as a chance to continue to develop and grow within his style of Country Blues music.
Kelly Joe Phelps considers himself a very lucky man indeed to be doing what he has dreamed about doing. His style of music can be performed and developed the rest of his life. He is a relatively young man and with the way he performs, here's to another 40+ years of preserving an American musical heritage! We are very lucky to have the music of Kelly Joe Phelps to enjoy!!
© 1996 Cascade Blues Association