Roll Away the Stone
Kelly Joe Phelps
Rykodisc (through Festival)
Review by Barry Healy
Even the most avid fan of the slide blues guitar would have to admit it's a slightly surreal form of music. Strange timbres and harsh harmonics mix with the percussive and melodic qualities of the guitar and, in the hands of lesser musicians, can become nothing but a caterwaul.
Kelly Joe Phelps is not a lesser musician; he is a master of coaxing the blues' spiritual and emotional shades out of the conflicting tones.
He came to the slide guitar after many years as a successful jazz player. Apparently, his decision to change styles was something akin to a religious experience, and there is other evidence of a religious conversion: every track is either a traditional gospel song or a Phelps original composed in the traditional style.
He has a pleasant, honeyed rasp to his voice, but is a pedestrian singer. Not that he pretends to be otherwise; it is the guitar on display here and the voice is the accompaniment. Nonetheless, it suits the guitar's steely brittleness and the songs' steady emphasis on death and heavenly redemption.
The cumulative effect is serene without conceding anything to "easy listening" music. How true this is to traditional Mississippi blues is for purists to argue; it is traditional enough without being bogged down.
While every track is good, the one that stands out is a darkly complex rendering of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean". First the listener is drawn in by the thumping beat, but shortly gets led up all sorts of harmonic paths and dramatic edges as Phelps strains the guitar to the limits of its range, all the while holding the mixture together with his caressing voice.
Some blues is for raucous beer drinking or for sculling hard liquor in smoky rooms. This recording is for late-night listening, sipping fine whiskey alone in front of an open fire, letting Phelps' voice and strange structures seep in, then going to bed and witnessing visions of glory in your dreams.