Kelly Joe Phelps

A writer at the San Diego Troubadour described guitarist and songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps as, “The Phantom Monk Of Folk- Blues,” and rightly so. Over the past 17 years of recording and touring, Phelps has been talked about as much for his passionate, spirit-driven, lone musical ways as for the inventiveness of his playing and singing. A New York Times concert reviewer wrote: “...his airy playing conjuring a pocket of supernatural space. He manipulated his fretboard to create eerie harmonics as he slipped from a mumble to a falsetto, as if to follow the soul beyond the physical realm.” Uncut magazine, reviewing a London show, wrote: “...to ripple and snake into unknown territory for the country blues he allegedly played, to squeeze out sounds touching the searching jazz that had once been his trade, to mutate through more layers than twelve strings should hold. And the songs – their pleas for mercy beyond the grave healed the spirit in ways disbelievers, in bibles or blues, could feel.”

Kelly Joe is an improviser within the world of folk music. He’ll likely use the same group of songs during one show that he used the previous night, sure enough, but the skew will have changed, the colors and shading moved around. Sometimes, it seems like the song might even be playing him, rather than the other way around. “I approach music this way,” he says, “to give it a chance to breathe, walk, or whisper. Improvising, even in small amounts, turns a piece of music into a conversation, in real time, with all of the unexpected twists and turns that any conversation is going to have, even if it’s with someone you talk to all the time. The emotional complexity of us, in any one moment, can be musically represented through improvisation as a moment in motion, like someone thinking, or worrying, perhaps, right this second, here and now. If there isn’t some part of the unknown or unexpected present, it seems like an important aspect of being human goes missing. That’s the beauty of spontaneity, even in the supposed confines of folk music. It allows a character, a note, or a chord some time to be alive, to look for themselves...if I’m doing my job well, that is.”

Phelps refers to himself as a folk musician. He deems the folk music story as one continually being written, and its ultimate definition in fluid motion. “There’s still a lot of work for us musicians to do,” he considers, “and a lot more music to find. We have to keep our eyes and ears open, and keep moving forward, and continue to learn.” The culture website PopMatters, reviewing Kelly’s CD ‘Western Bell’, figured he had work to do as well, but clearly as the Phantom Monk: “When a listener resigns him or herself to intently listening to Kelly’s lone guitar, fighting back the darkness one plunk at a time, an odd sort of poetry arises: like a hero of the high plains, roaming nameless to wherever God deems his services necessary, Phelps speaks directly to your soul. If that isn’t the stuff of legends, I don’t know what is.”

Other talk about Kelly Joe:

Steve Earle: "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."

Bill Frisell: "I first became aware of Kelly Joe Phelps when my daughter (who was 9 or 10 at the time) brought home a cd ('Lead Me On') from the Vancouver Folk Festival. "You might like this, Dad" she said. Boy was she right. I've heard Kelly Joe mention that he's been inspired by people like Roscoe Holcomb, Robert Pete Williams, Dock Boggs, Mississippi 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."

Tim O'Brien: "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." 

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