10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 19, 1997
I W
Phelps to bless A2 with blues experience
Yo La Tengo to play Blind Pig
By Anders Smith-Lindall
Daily Arts Writer
Legend has it that, many years ago in
the Mississippi Delta, a young man
named Robert Johnson arranged a mid-
night meeting at a deserted crossroads.
There, by the light of a full moon, he
struck a deal with the devil, bargaining
his eternal soul in exchange for the abil-
ity to play the blues better than any
other man. And though he died from
drinking poisoned whiskey in 1938, his
stature as an influential giant of the
blues lives today.
Listening to Kelly Joe Phelps' new
album, "Roll Away the Stone" it is
clear that Phelps, who hails from the
state of Washington - about as far
from that Delta crossroads as you can
get in the lower 48 - has listened to his
share of Robert Johnson. It is equally
clear that mentioning the name Kelly
Joe in the same breath with Blind
Lemon and Mississippi Fred might not
be as foolish as it sounds.
Phelps will appear at the Ark on
Sunday night to play material from this
album; an album that is, in many
respects, a traditional blues record. But
to his considerable credit, Phelps recalls
the past while transcending the blue-
print of tradition, adapting sounds and
styles that have been handed down
through generations and making them
into something new and distinctly his
own.
Some of this willingness to experi-
ment and ability to create may be attrib- the guitar's body or his foot on a stomp
uted to his appreciation for and training box.
in jazz. And he sings. His voice, though no
A former jazz bassist, Phelps once great wonder in itself, is soulful in a
idolized that genre's greats, from John plain-spoken way, slightly smoky with a
Coltrane to Miles
Davis. After hear-
ing a record by
seminal bluesman Kell
Mississippi Fred
McDowell some
years ago, Phelps
took up a guitar
and began to play the blues, but his jazz
background still shines through in the
array of sounds he coaxes from his
strings and his highly impressionistic
usage of them in his songs.
For Kelly Joe Phelps is a guitar wiz-
ard, conjuring not just melodies but all
manner of moans, squeaks, squeals and
sobs from his instrument. Laying the
guitar flat on his lap like a dobro, he
picks and plucks with care and preci-
sion, turning a mere note into an impas-
sioned cry with an upward sweep of his
steel slide, intermittently keeping time
with the resonant thump of his hand on
EVIEW
y Joe Phelps
Sunday night at 8 p.m.
The Ark
$1'
gravel edge. He is
sensitive to the fact
that his singing
need only comple-
ment the playing-
the clear focus here
- and gives sensi-
tive, heartfelt treat-
ments of both his original compositions
and traditional numbers such as "When
the Roll Is Called Up Yonder."
I don't know whether Phelps came
by this remarkable talent naturally or
struck a satanic pact. But I do know
that to hear "Roll Away the Stone" is
a visceral experience; to see this man
perform, bent over a supposedly inan-
imate object that suddenly seems to
be alive and squalling in his hands,
promises to be something of a won-
derment.
Just make sure he stays away from
'the bad whiskey.
Straight out of Hoboken and into your hearts, it's Yo La Tengo.
Guitarist/hubby Ira Kaplan (front), drummer/wife Georgia Hubley and
bassist/chaperone James McNew play at 9:30 tomorrow night at the
Blind Pig, showcasing material from their new album, I Can Hear the
Heart Beating as One." With more hipster cred than you can shake a
Pavement record at and a killer live show, Yo La Tengo promises to make
the Pig the place to be Saturday. On top of that, they'll be right here
the Daily on Monday morning and at the Magic Stickghn Detroit oro
show that night.
Kelly Joe Phelps
PS
." MICHIGAN THEATRE
ANN ARBOR
Friday, September 26 - 8:00 pm
Reserved tickets $30.00, $22.50, $18.50
available at the Michigan Union
Ticket Office and all
7x..M) .. outlets.
INFO AND CHARGE BY PHONE
313-763-TKTS OR 810-645-6666
Please join us in support ofArborHaven/The SalvationArmy
by bringing a donation of non-perishable food to the concert.
~ I ltY
S >. p ~R w3
a . Iffi m
Faulks to read 'Birdsong' at Borders*
By Sarah Beldo
For the Daily
Elizabeth, one of the main characters in
Sebastian Faulks' generation-spanning
novel "Birdsong: A Novel of Love and
War," finds herself driven to forge a con-
nection between her
life in 1978 and her
grandfather's life dur-
ing World War I.eb
After reading his
diaries, she discovers
that "Although she
was happy enough
with what she had become, it was this
continued sense of the easy, the essential
nature of what she did, that most irritated
her. She thought of Tom Brennan, who
had known only life or death, then death
in life. In her generation there was no
intensity."
Reading this book, we can't help but
agree with her. The contrast between
Elizabeth's mundane grocery list of a
life and the landscape of war is acute;
REVIEW
astian Faulks
Tonight at 7:30
Borders
Free
even Elizabeth's
affair with a mar-
ried man seems like
something she's
doing to pass time,
while two genera-
tions ago her grand-
father seemed near-
No need for
I financial aid.
ly obliterated by the flame of passion.
Though Faulks' point is reasonable, I
admit that I felt as if by giving Elizabeth
- the representation of recent genera-
tions--such a comfortable life, he was
r
L
r
<.:; _
..
V ;
They're on sale.
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slightly belittling the unique struggles
of our modern ex istence. Indeel, the
two lives seem so tr apart that when
intertwined they resemble a clumsy
couple doing the two-step.
These awkward connections are ;ier-
haps the only weak part of Faulks'
skillful, complex novel. The seci-ons of
the novel set early in the century argP
forceful enough to stand on their own
as stories of innocence and passions
thwarted by war. Faulks' roots as a
journalist explain his obsession with
detail, which is alternatly d Eight ful
and painful. No sense is Iltiunex-
plored, be it the taste of a woman's skin
or the smell of decaying bodies. The
scenes in the trenches seem well-
researched and are genuinely moving.
Also beautiful is the unsubtle tb4
effective way Faulks deals with the
theme of recording the past for future
generations. Both written anId oral
narrative are given high importance,
and Faulks praises procreation as the
best way to carry on values into the
next era. The author must be (praised
for giving equal voice to female char-
acters in the novel; it's rare to-rcccive
a feminine viewpoint in a novkel about
war.
"Birdsong" is Faulks' fourth nover,
and it spent more than a year on
Britain's bestseller list. The aufhor will
be reading an excerpt from tie novel
tonight at 7:30 at Borders to celebrate its
paperback debut. Both lovers 4d war-
riors are bound to find something
provocative to think about in Faulks'
weighty and redemptive narrative.
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SMASH MOUTH " Fush Yu Mang
This San Jose foursome's mixture of ska, punk and pop has made them
huge in their hometown. Their new album puts them in the national
spotlight and features the energetic single "Walkin' on the Sun."
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WHISKEYTOWN * Strangers Almanac
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