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QUESTION METHOD: KELLY JOE PHELPS
 A
brilliant improviser, Kelly Joe Phelps
is known for his ability to put a new spin on
a song every time he plays. "For me, the
direction is always forward. I learn, experiment,
experience, apply. Everything I'm doing now is
deeply rooted in what I've done before, coupled
with whatever sense of vision I've been fortunate
enough to receive. I no more want to play, sing
or write the way I did five years ago than want
to live the life I had then. I change, the music
changes, but it's a very straight line. It may
appear to be a circle, but each individual recording
exemplifies my current musical passions and explorations
added to past influences and experience.”
1. Which was the first record you bought
with your own money?
Stevie Wonder – Talking Book.
2.
Which was the last record you bought with your
own money?
The Musicians of the Nile – Charcoal
Gypsies.
3.
What was the first solo you learned from a record
— and can you still play it?
I think it must have been something from the James
Gang, although at this point I couldn’t
tell you exactly what it was. “Funk #49,”
I think. I remember learning the guitar riffs
in BTO’s “Taking Care of Business”
and I remember working desperately hard on the
solos in “Stairway To Heaven” Not
the guitar part — although I did learn that
as well — but the cool, lyrical stuff Page
played in between Robert Plant’s wail, and
gone. I can’t remember much about that anymore,
either.
4.
Which recording of your own (or as a sideman)
are you most proud of, and why?
My record Shine Eyed Mister Zen
holds a special place for me, in that it represents
pretty clearly where I had been as well as where
I was going and maintains good balance between
guitar work, vocal work, and writing. I still
think it blows chunks, but it does have a nice
voice.
5.
What's the difference between playing live and
playing in a studio?
Playing live has a particular advantage, in my
thinking, in that it presents an audience —
which applies pressure to stretch and reach which
has the potential to push the music higher than
it could ever be without this odd kind of teamwork.
Playing in a studio is very, very demanding and
can seem non-musical, clinical, forced. Making
records is akin to building houses, while playing
gigs is more like living in them.
6.
What's the difference between a good gig and a
bad gig?
A good gig makes me look forward to the next one;
a bad gig makes me want to drive home, even if
it’s three thousand miles away. A good gig
is shoes that fit; a bad gig is needing a walking
cane. A good gig is a birthday; a bad gig is the
waiting room at Oil Can Henry’s.
7.
What's the difference between a good guitar and
a bad guitar?
A bad guitar is proud of it’s badness and
forces this attitude on anyone who tries to tame
it. A good guitar is modest and timid, sings beautifully,
carries the grocery bags.
8.
You play electric and acoustic. Do you approach
the two differently?
The primary difference between acoustic and electric,
I find, is in the sustain level. An electric guitar
allows me to hold notes far longer than I could
otherwise, which greatly affects the way I will
phrase something. On an acoustic guitar the sustain
is far, far less — which demands more continual
physical motion.
9.
Do you sound more like yourself on acoustic or
electric?
Acoustic, surely. Playing electric is like wearing
a wig.
10.
Do you sound like yourself on other people's guitars?
Yeah, I’d think so. What ends up under my
fingers gets there through my head and it’s
the same ol’ bastard whether it’s
my guitar or yours.
11.
Which living artist (music, or other arts) would
you like to collaborate with?
Russell Banks.
12.
What dead artist (music, or other arts) would
you like to have collaborated with?
John Fahey.
13.
What's your latest project about?
Trying to move creatively forward, understanding
where to go and why based on past fulfillment
and future hunger, good songs and good singing
and good playing, hopefully.
Web
site: http://www.kjp.com/
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