Kelly Joe Phelps

I wish I had time to gush through a few drafts of a thrilled to be alive type review of the Kelly Joe Phelps show last night at The West End, but I don't.

A single draft will have to suffice! :P

As I scarf down my late lunch, I'll do what I can to fill you in. I've not seen Phelps before, but admire his recordings on a number of levels. My favourite recording so far, has been his Shine Eyed Mister Zen, It's got a ruthlessly articulate exposure that I find attractive. I don't need a performance to be perfect, but I sure appreciate the sense that a human is playing. This is one of those recordings where I know the player is of the highest calibre. Nothing in the studio got in the way of keeping every subtle note variation clear.

I've waited a number of years to catch his live show and my expectations over time had climbed to unrealistic proportions, or so I thought heading into the city last night to see him at the West End.

Jodie King was on stage first with what I thought was a darn tight rhythm acoustic guitar accompaniment. She described being freshly back from a western Canadian tour of Roots mall stores. I have to admit that lyrically she seemed well suited for insipid rubber stamp type branding and might have stepped a hairs breadth over from the canned mall music enough to have nobody notice. It just wasn't my thing. When she finished up she reminded us of her name and neglected to mention who her flawless and rhythmically interesting guitar player was the tipping point for my bad mouth reviews inspiration.

Phelps doesn't seem to require much warm up. By the end of his first song he had capped it with a signature style invention that traveled the journey up and down the neck of his guitar with a kaleidoscope of inflections that brought me to a fine place, all goose fleshed and grinning from ear to ear. Even though I had built up his expertise in my mind, he did not disappoint me in any way. I think my commitment to being a fan of this man's work is increased by at least an order of magnitude today after being so well satisfied last night.

I was a little disheartened to see the room not filled to the rafters, but he had just been here this summer with Lucinda Williams, but I don't care for the music I know of hers so I passed on the date, knowing he'd be back for this show. Then again, I tend to the negative and know that many are satisfied by pablum served up by spin doctors playing the odds with our culturally vapid taste in so many things. Here is not the place to wax eloquent in the negative though. Last night's show was intimate, gracious and intense in such good ways.

Here is a man that I can believe aims to balance what he knows is right and good with women while being a man with a full compliment of the best of a man's characteristics. He's got enough fire for two at least, and possibly more. Lyrically he's a proven story teller. He's studied at the feet of the masters before him. Names like Dave Van Ronk and Leo Kottke came up in Kelly's rambling chat with the audience. Phelps played a tribute of his own to Dave Van Ronk and although it's been a few years since I've listened to any of Ronk's recordings, Phelps made his tribute sound like every Dave Van Ronk song I'd ever heard. It was brilliant.

He comes across as humble and I suppose it would be tough to do otherwise playing to a modest showing of support in an out of the main stream stop like ours. He made it seem like he drove out from Portland Oregon specifically to play this show. From all appearances he was happy to be playing and carried a professionalism that was virtually indistinguishable from a simple unsophisticated love of playing anywhere at any time.

Stupidly I sat, stage left for a right handed one man guitar show so I missed a lot of details of his hand work and have to assume the instrument was a Martin dreadnought of some kind.

He played with virtuosity I've seldom witnessed live. He did it, providing many obvious layers to both the rhythm and melody. Our middle daughter tagged along last night. After the first song she leaned over and said, "I don't even know how much of this I'm not appreciating!" and that's about how I felt too. I was simply grateful of his care in committing so much of himself to the show last night. I'd go and see him again without hesitation and I'll certainly be having his latest recording. A couple of fine Canadian musicians, once again grace the studio with him.

Facebook provided opportunity for unexpectedly being joined by some friends to enjoy the spectacle. I hope it was as good for them as it was for me. Spectacle might be over stating it in some peoples eyes. A chair, a microphone, a plaid shirt and a very big musical foot print were all there, but no hype could be seen for miles.

Wish you all could have been there.

Please pardon whatever editing remains pending. Life is short apparently!