Kelly Joe Phelps

Kelly Joe Phelps expanded the parameters of modern blues through his strong commitment to literary songs and his expressive yet simple guitar stylings. His roots as a jazz bassist in Seattle and Portland informed the idiosyncratic style of his guitar work and he went on to launch a successful solo career as a singer/songwriter in the mid-1990s. Known for his lap style slide guitar work, Phelps' stripped-down amalgam of classic Delta blues, folk, and country with echoes of jazz won him critical acclaim and he spent the next decade touring incessantly and recording a series of highly regarded albums for the Rykodisc label including Roll Away the Stone (1997), Shine Eyed Mister Zen (1999), and Tap the Red Cane Whirlwind (2005). The experimental, all-instrumental Western Bell (2009) was a career highlight and after a 2010 collaboration with Corinne West, Phelps made just one more solo record in 2012's sparse, but captivating Brother Sinner & the Whale. He died in May 2022.