13
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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