Kelly Joe Phelps – Roll Away The Stone
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Posted On September 1, 1997
Listening to blues guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps’ Roll Away The Stone is almost like eavesdropping; you’re a fly on the wall of his Vancouver, Washington, home where he recorded the album on a four-track, accompanied only by his guitar.
Phelps began his musical career playing jazz, and those roots are evident in his introspective, sandpapery vocals on Roll Away The Stone. His first album, the hauntingly beautiful Lead Me On (released on Burnside Records in 1994), relied more directly on the blues for its inspiration and direction. On both albums, the song selection is a blend of Phelps’ own compositions, a few traditional songs, and a couple of songs written by notable bluesmen; songs infused with sadness and longing in a spiritual vein.
Phelps’ original compositions comprise a little more than half of the songs on Roll Away The Stone. The songs are primarily blues-based but follow the open-ended tendencies of jazz. In the title song, Phelps’ guitar sings the melody back to him and around him. “Go There” almost floats to the sky in exuberance. “Without The Light” is probably the most beautiful song on the album, slow and sweet, as he sings, “Where my sorrow goes, there I’ll be.” Although Phelps is known primarily as a slide guitarist, “Hosanna” and “Footprints” benefit from his rapid-fire fingerpicking, notes tumbling and cascading from his fingertips.
On his first album, Phelps covered a song written by delta bluesman Nehemiah “Skip” James called “Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues”. This time around it’s “Cypress Grove”, a song James played at most of his performances before he died in 1969. Phelps’ version is mournful, restrained, and dignified; a tribute to James. Also included is Blind Lemon Jefferson and Furry Lewis’ “See That My Grave is Kept Clean”, which ends with shivery, almost ghostly runs up the strings with the slide.
The three traditional songs here would be at home on Phelps’ first record. He sticks to a simple and respectful reading of these numbers, relying on their timelessness and his silken voice for effect. The album closes on a quietly positive note with the traditional “That’s Alright” and a stunningly beautiful instrumental version of “Doxology”, shimmering and punctuated with harmonics.
