FFWD Weekly
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Music by Martin Kemp Kelly Joe Phelps Saturday, March 25 Engineered Air Theatre Towards the end of his song "The House Carpenter," you can hear the slide of Kelly Joe Phelps clanking noisily against the fret board of his guitar. While many artists would immediately cut another version, lest the "mistake" end up on a recording, this was the version chosen by Phelps to be the first track on his latest release. Why? Because it’s real. This quality of realness resounds throughout Phelps’s albums. The playing, the stories and the characters all reflect a lack of pretense, possessing instead a down-to-earth quality that suggests nobody is telling Phelps what to do — he’s just doing his thing, whatever that might be. A bit of a loner, Phelps prefers being a solo musician. His latest recording, shine eyed mr zen, simply features his bluesy guitar and earthy, often raspy lyrics. "When I listen to music, my overall preference is to hear just one musician, no matter what they’re doing – whether it’s just singing, or playing the guitar and singing, or playing the fiddle and clogdancing," says Phelps. "Hearing one person makes it feel as though I’m reading a book, or maybe having a conversation, or eavesdropping on that conversation." A former free-form jazz bass player, Phelps grew up listening to acoustic music, but originally resisted playing it. "Growing up I heard a lot of country and western, and folk music from my mom and dad. I always liked that music, but I never thought about playing it, because it seemed like it was not what musicians played," he laughs. "But I think as time went by, I was redefining that kind of music and wanting that purity." Eventually, Phelps was inspired to play a form of stripped-down acoustic blues and folk. Yet it is not the blues itself that inspires him, rather he is moved by the purity of those blues musicians who have come before him. In fact, when it comes down to it, Phelps doesn’t really like the blues – he’s just damn good at it. "I don’t think of myself as a blues musician," he admits. "But I do like certain musicians from that school of playing very much, and still go to them for example and inspiration." Phelps cautiously adds, "It may sound weird, or like I should be thrown out of the temple, but I’m not a fan of blues music. I never really have been, but I’m a rabid fan of certain musicians that come from that camp — Fred McDowell, Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, Robert Pete Williams. They are musicians that I dearly love and respect, but you could damn near box the rest of it up and throw it in the ocean — I’d never miss it." Too many musicians, according to Phelps, just try too hard and forget about being real. "Sometime you can tell if people are trying to sell records. You can tell if people are trying to get lucky, or trying to be heavy or deep, or they are trying to be technically amazing." He adds, however, that fortunately there are exceptions to this. "Sometimes I hear musicians and none of that shows up – it just sounds like I’m listening to someone who’s being completely honest with me musically. In other words, they are reaching into the marrow of their bones and pulling out this music that is only about the beauty of being alive."

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