Western Bell

by

Kelly Joe Phelps

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Like others, I've been a KJP fan from the start, own all his albums, and have learned to trust him when he throws you a curveball. After several more recent excursions into larger-ensemble music, here he is all alone in a studio (apparently literally alone, since he's listed as the engineer as well). You couldn't get more intimate.

This album feels like a tour of Kelly Joe Phelps's private laboratory, in his head, with his mind-guitar. Some of the sounds are strange, yes, but somehow appropriate to the melancholy tinge that infuses just about everything KJP does. I'd recommend this CD highly to the kind of open-minded person who already enjoys Tin Hat (Trio) or Rachel's.

No, it's not dinner music or easy listening. To enjoy Western Bell, imagine that you are pulled over for speeding down a back-country road in some Red State, and thrown in jail, and your cellmate is none other than Kelly Joe. On your third day of incarceration, after KJP has already told you all the stories of his crazy relatives and the people he's met over the years (in earlier albums it feels like he's doing this), he finally falls silent and just plays his guitar quietly in the corner. And from his fingers, between these old rusty strings, come more portraits of crazy aunts and suicidal cousins, maybe people in your own family. That's what this album feels like: a wordless confession that makes you want to hang on every word.

To start off I am a Real KJP fan and I expect him to throw some musicals curveballs. (and he has) I approached this recording with caution. An entire CD of solo improvised music. Daring?--not if you have seen him in concert and have been amazed at his ability to improvise both the guitar and vocal AT THE SAME TIME but...this is risky. No vocals,unfailiar sounds, and less reliance on familiar forms to improvise within. After basically a singer-songwriters album for his last outing, in spite of my familiarity with all forms of his music to date,the CD advertised accurately,--- I did not expect this. Nothing else like it in his catalog. I will continue replay this CD as I have with some of his past efforts that I did not appreciate on first listen. Why? KJP is a musical genius and he has taken me places that others have not but... is this art or self-indulgence (or are they the same thing?)