KELLY JOE PHELPS
kellyjoephelps.com

"Beggar's Oil" Audio Sample

Acoustic blues guitarist and songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps plays a haunting mix of original and traditional blues and gospel songs that are mesmerizing, contemplative, intense, and beautiful. For much of his inspiration Phelps cites the blues of country blues legend Mississippi Fred McDowell and the lesser known Robert Pete Williams, a rural acoustic blues that is less strict in meter and more improvisational than usually heard with the country blues.

A brilliant improviser, Phelps is known for his ability to put a new spin on a song every time he plays. "For me, the direction is always forward. I learn, experiment, experience, apply. Everything I'm doing now is deeply rooted in what I've done before, coupled with whatever sense of vision I've been fortunate enough to receive.

"Kelly Joe occupies a musical landscape somewhere between Blind Willie Johnson's burnt down house and Springsteen's Nebraska." - Blues Revue

"At first you think it's familiar, then you know you've never heard anything like this. I love this music." - Leo Kottke

"Kelly Joe Phelps is a great example of what the modern blues is all about. His music has all the authority of the great blues without any hint of rehash or re-tread." - U2's The Edge

"Kelly Joe Phelps plays, sings, and writes the blues. Hold up before you lock that in - forget about songs in a twelve bar three chord progression with a two line repeat and answer rhyme structure - though he can certainly do that when he wants to. I'm talking about a feeling, a smoky, lonesome, painful - yet somehow comforting groove that lets you know that you are not alone - even when you're blue. Play on brother." - Steve Earl

"I've heard Kelly Joe mention that he's been inspired by people like Roscoe Holcomb, Robert Pete Williams, Dock Boggs, Mississipi Fred McDowell, and others. He seems to have absorbed all this (and all kinds of other stuff as well) and come back with something all his own. Sounds like he's coming from the inside out - the bottom up. He's not just playing 'AT' the music or trying to recreate or imitate something that's happened in the past. He seems to have tapped into the artery somehow. There's a lot going on in between and behind the notes - mystery. He's been an inspiration to me." - Bill Frisell

"When I heard Kelly Joe the first time, I was amazed how it all made so much sense. His music is a wide world with three hundred and sixty degrees of influence.... Kelly Joe is a musical slight of hand master. He pulls world wide sounds out of his guitar." - Tim O'Brien