Few songwriters wear the mantle of troubadour as unassumingly as Kelly Joe Phelps. Eschewing the cloying introspection that tends to prevail among the coffeehouse crowd, Phelps writes snapshot vignettes borne from short-story traditions and delivers them in sturdy acoustic settings […]
Kelly Joe Phelps has a naturally resonant voice that walks a fine line. He can sound richly appointed but untethered to the earth, a fate that sometimes befalls others with naturally beautifully timbres, such as John Martyn and even the […]
For years, Oregon’s Kelly Joe Phelps has fascinated fans, many of them accomplished musicians, with his lap-style acoustic slide guitar technique. His virtuosity as a player and his skills as an interpreter of country blues classics have never been in […]
Channeling the influences of Lead Belly and Dock Boggs, Kelly Joe Phelps continues to create anew within the country blues idiom while staying true to its roots on Shine Eyed Mister Zen. Using an acoustic guitar the way most would […]
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 […]
