Coolmixes

Like the late Chris Whitley (to whom the banjo-driven "Handful of Arrows" is dedicated), Kelly Joe Phelps initially built a following through the sharpness of his chops, but would rather be known for the strength of his songs. Thus this stripped-down exercise in musical intimacy draws attention to lyrics set to homespun melodies, with an occasional fiddle, pedal steel, melodica, or keyboard augmenting Phelps's acoustic accompaniment. Though there's a stately grace to country-tinged tunes such as "The Anvil" and "Tight to the Jar," some of his wordcraft is so oblique and self-consciously poetic that it resists translation. From the opening of "Loud as Ears": "Old, dark ruby coats his throat / gloves a feathered mind / sharpens up her fountain pen." Huh? Yet the music is always eloquent, and there's a tenderness to Phelps's Dylanesque phrasing. With three instrumentals among the dozen tracks, he pays tribute to Dave Van Ronk on "MacDougal," with the sort of ragtime picking that made its way from the Mississippi Delta to the Greenwich Village folk scene. --Don McLeese

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