Kelly Joe Phelps, guitarist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed jazz, blues, folk and country – obituary

Kelly Joe Phelps, who has died aged 62, was a soulful singer, storytelling songwriter and gifted guitarist, whose natural talent across a broad spectrum of musical styles won him admiration from his peers, if not the commercial success he deserved.

Variously described as jazz improviser, born-again bluesman, folk stylist, country innovator, slide guitar great and avant-garde adventurer, he was essentially an old school troubadour whose instinctive approach resisted categorisation.

The blend of his free-flowing acoustic guitar with smoky vocals was easy on the ear, but his determination to apply a personalised lo-fi technique to a diverse musical tradition may have cost him mainstream acceptance.

Not that fame was ever the aim of an artist who preferred to strip away unnecessary embellishments to reach the very heart of the music, be it radically reworking the blues classic Goodnight Irene, an upbeat arrangement of the hymn Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, or one of his own soul-bearing narratives, like Lead Me On.

In 2010 he collaborated with the singer Corinne West to release the Magnetic Skyline album – and he was in regular demand to work with other artists, recording at different times with Rory Block, Martin Simpson, Townes Van Zandt, Bill Frisell and Tony Furtado.

But he was always happiest solo. “I prefer playing alone. I was struck by the way those early country blues records simplified things and I tried to do the same.”

He was born on October 5 1959; his parents were Seventh Day Adventists and he had a deeply religious upbringing in the farming community of Sumner, Washington.

His father, a refrigeration specialist with a love of folk and country music, played fiddle, piano and various other instruments and, accompanied by his wife on guitar and banjo, played in the house every day. Kelly Joe joined them on drums and piano before learning to play the guitar at 12.

Yet it was the free jazz of Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis and John Coltrane that inspired him, and he went on to spend 10 years playing bass in jazz groups.

Then, a record by the delta blues man Mississippi Fred McDowell took him on a new path entirely, exploring country blues as he hit the road playing small clubs all over America. “I wanted to figure out a way to improvise like a jazz musician, but play a style more linked to folk forms,” he said.

It resulted in his debut album Lead Me On in 1994; he was acclaimed as a modern blues revivalist and praised for his slide guitar, played on his lap using a steel bar.

Subsequently signed to the Rykodisc label, his next six albums incorporated varied influences, even stretching to playing bluegrass banjo on his 2006 album Tunesmith Retrofit.

“He was a complicated guy,” said his friend and occasional collaborator and producer Steve Dawson. “The more people wanted him to do something like he used to, the more he wanted to drop it and do something else. He never took the easy path.”

Phelps’s ideal of stripping music back to its roots extended to the studio: his 2001 album Sky Like A Broken Clock was recorded in one take with no overdubs. His fascination with improvisation came to the fore on his 2009 instrumental album Western Bell.

He gradually rediscovered the religious beliefs he had initially rejected, and his songwriting became more spiritual, culminating in the Brother Sinner & The Whale album (2012), loosely inspired by stories from the Old Testament, notably the book of Jonah.

His career was cut short by a diagnosis of ulnar neuropathy, a severe nerve disorder in the hand making it impossible to play, and he retired to Iowa. His survivors include a daughter.

Kelly Joe Phelps, born October 5 1959 , died May 31 2022