[Harp-L] Jelly's singular style.....

["tomsmics" <tomsmics@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Friday night I was lucky enough to find myself at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, sitting about three feet from four of Nashville's finest songwriters who were playing "in the round"--setting up in the middle of the audience, facing each other, trading songs, playing the dozens and keeping the audience entertained and enthralled.  These songwriters had deep Nashville connections and were all famous individually.  Don Schlitz was in the Songwriter Hall of Fame, had written, among other things "The Gambler" and had two Grammys and four Songwriter of the Year awards on his mantel;  Tom Schuyler had been president of the CMA, head of RCA/Nashville, and had also written hits;  Fred Knobloch had written for Trisha Yearwood, Ray Charles, Etta James, collaborated with Delbert McClinton and started his career with Fingers Taylor.  And each of these guys could play some serious guitar.

Their sole accompanist, and soloist was Kirk Johnson, known to us as Jellyroll. He was sitting with these heavyweights, and it was obvious they saw  him as a complete equal. 

That quiet, unassuming guy totally blew me away, as well as much of the audience.  He never overplayed.  He was always able to match the feel of the song with his solos, or capture some of the emotion of the lyric, and was always a complete contributor to the music, not just a hired gun.  His facility with adding color behind a lyric, especially on the slower numbers was spot-on in every tune.  

But what was most impressive was his unique, singular style.  When you've played as long as I have, and listened as hard, you expect to hear snippets of the great predecessors, especially the Walters, McCoy, Harpo, etc.  But with Jelly there's none of that.  He seems to have reached that point where he's distilled his influences into something that's all his, with no hint of those who came before.  And, get this, he surprised me and whipped out a 270 for one song, playing a beautiful jazz solo over a samba style beat.  Brought down the house.

If you head to Nashville, you know where you need to be.  But if you can't make it, you better pick up his latest solo CD (one of the finest things you'll ever hear) or his duet CD with Fred Knobloch, recorded right there at the Bluebird a few years back.  TOM ELLIS/Tom's Mics