Lead Me on

Rating

Album: Lead Me on
#	Song Title	Time
1)	I've Been Converted
2)	Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues
3)	Where Do I Go Now
4)	Love Me Baby Blues
5)	Lead Me On
6)	Jesus Make up My Dying Bed
7)	Leavin' Blues
8)	Marking Stone Blues
9)	Black Crow Keeps Flying, The
10)	I'd Be a Rich Man
11)	Someone to Save Me
12)	Motherless Children
13)	Fare Thee Well
14)	We Got To Meet Death One Day [bonus track]
15)	Ever Be Here Again [bonus track]

Album: Lead Me on
#	Song Title	Time
1)	I've Been Converted
2)	Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues
3)	Where Do I Go Now
4)	Love Me Baby Blues
5)	Lead Me On
6)	Jesus Make up My Dying Bed
7)	Leavin' Blues
8)	Marking Stone Blues
9)	Black Crow Keeps Flying, The
10)	I'd Be a Rich Man
11)	Someone to Save Me
12)	Motherless Children
13)	Fare Thee Well
14)	We Got To Meet Death One Day [bonus track]
15)	Ever Be Here Again [bonus track]

Performer Notes

Personnel includes: Kelly Joe Phelps (Hawaiian steel guitar).
Personnel: Kelly Joe Phelps (vocals, guitar).
Photographer: James Rexroad.
Not since Lucinda Williams debuted with an all-acoustic solo album of traditional country blues in 1979 has an artist appeared on the folk-blues scene with the immediate authority of guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps. Equally indebted to traditional pioneers of Delta-style country blues like Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson as to more exploratory visionaries like Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder (Phelps plays much of this album on a slack-tuned Hawaiian guitar, a style Cooder popularized), Phelps sings with dusty wisdom and plays like a master. A former jazz bassist, Phelps has an impeccable sense of timing, essential to a music so immediate. Opening with the traditional gospel tune "I've Been Converted" but focusing almost exclusively on magnificent originals after that, LEAD ME ON is an immensely satisfying, exciting album announcing the arrival of a major country-blues talent.

Professional Reviews

Down Beat (2/00, p.70) - 4 out of 5 - "With his cloudy intonation and sensually nonchalant vocal delivery in sharp contrast to the glasslike clarity of his guitar picking, Phelps puts across a strong program dominated by original tunes....unfailingly perceptive [lyrics]..."

Living Blues (1-2/95, p.105) - "...he can conjure up eerie and complex tones reminiscent of Ry Cooder's instrumental opening to the film `The Long Ryders.' Phelps bows to Skip James and Joe Calicott; the rest of the set consists of originals that mine the traditional blues themes of women and travel, with a little religion thrown in just in case."