Kelly Joe Phelps - Lead Me On (1994)

> The album

Mystical country blues

Simplicity raised to the level of greatness ! The warm raw sound of the slide guitar, the stomp-box beat and Phelps' hoarse voice really desperate singing cast a mystical spell on the listener. This album, his first, distillates a gospel country-folk blues as authentic and pure as the water of the Cascades mountains waterfalls of his native Washington state. But his musical roots are obviously down in the Mississippi Delta.

Phelps, who surprisingly started as a jazz musician interested in Miles Davis or John Coltrane for about a decade, switched to blues after being struck by a revelation from listening to Fred McDowell. He has kept from his early period the deconstruction-reconstruction approach of jazz and applied it to folk blues, breaking the holy twelve-bar architecture of blues and reinventing a new style which miraculously sound as authentic as the traditional one.

His own six compositions are hard to identify from his versions of the four traditionals and three covers of Skip James, Joe Callicott and Herman Johnson songs (*read below*). Phelps make these as much his own as his originals are.

His somber lyrics reflect the tormented mystical soul of the man. If you're interested, you will find them on  the link below.
The words of this brooding, gospel-based acoustic Delta blues are rolling in Phelps' mouth just like the slow muddy waters of the Mississippi river, in a soulful gut-wrenching way. His voice is an instrument by itself, inseparable from his slide guitar, most of the time played on his lap.

His Delta style playing is irreproachable, and Phelps has enriched it by borrowing finger picking techniques and melodic richness from the Piedmont style. The blend is just irresistible !
This strongly gospel-influenced blues album is a real marvel not to be missed. "I've Been Converted" sings Phelps on the first track. Well, I surely have been ! ■

◄ Joe Callicott

(*) I've Been Converted (Traditional) - Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues (Nehemiah James aka Skip James) - Where Do I Go Now (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Love Me Baby Blues ("Mississippi" Joe Callicott) - Lead Me On (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed (Traditional) - Leavin' Blues (Herman E. Johnson) - Marking Stone Blues (Kelly Joe Phelps) - The Black Crow Keeps Flying (Kelly Joe Phelps) - I'd To Be A Rich Man (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Someone To Save Me (Kelly Joe Phelps) - Motherless Children (Traditional) - Fare Thee Well (Traditional)

The lyrics
► https://american-music.forum-actif.eu/t649-lead-me-on-1994-paroles#3359

Two songs from the album
► "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues" live at the Blue Owl's Nest in Bridgetown (Western Australia) in 2013 : https://youtu.be/_eb0XlNbPjE
► "Black crow keeps flying" live in studio : https://youtu.be/3z4Z8C4fEQI

The live videos
Note that Phelps repertoire, as you'll understand from these videos, is not entirely made of gospel and country blues but also extends to folk...

► "Country Blues" at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA, in 2009 : https://youtu.be/7aSCeN01BFA
► In Holland in 2012 :
→ https://youtu.be/dHGTyoNtmNk
→ "Wagoner's Lad" : https://youtu.be/XobFGacl0TA
→ "Hope In The Lord To Provide" : https://youtu.be/l2uHImNWA9w
→ "Moonshiner" : https://youtu.be/BxWW1FtHdU4

► At the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, California, in 2012 :
→ "Sometimes a Drifter" : https://youtu.be/k6lWbYJCjEA
→ "Hard Time They Never Go Away" : https://youtu.be/bEImPb8QxSk
► A very personal version of Robert Johnson's "Hellhounds On My Trail" with a jazzy intro, in Cedar City, Utah, in 2012 : https://youtu.be/jrqyD_1bBEw

► At the Arlington Arts Centre, Newbury (England), in 2013 :
→ Part 1 : https://youtu.be/8hC2DVJO_Qw
→ Part 2 : https://youtu.be/Yh_JxuCpzVY
→ Part 3 : https://youtu.be/9Ok4h2jsD4M
→ Part 4 : https://youtu.be/79_6tc72exA
→ Part 5 : https://youtu.be/yHRQhuAuFEs
→ Part 6 : https://youtu.be/9adz-GKyi3I
► "River Rat Jimmy" at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee : https://youtu.be/NP1O7ogdkyE

► "Goodnight Irene" : https://youtu.be/eGH3FpeV_xI (slap slide guitar version) & https://youtu.be/WHd2h4eXw1k
► "Go There" : https://youtu.be/Wmut5WhT3cI (on slap slide guitar)

► With Corinne West in 2019 : https://youtu.be/cfcowtay8is

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