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Amazon.co.uk Review
The songs on Slightshot Professionals proceed at a languid pace but are prevented from collapse by the taut playing of a group that includes legendary guitarist Bill Frisell. This is country, old country, of the sort also practised in these times only by Sixteen Horsepower and Chris Whitley. Phelps shares with both of these a love for desolate, careworn vocals and guitars that wail like abandoned dogs, but he brings to this age-old idea the zest and sparkle of the true believer. Slingshot Professionals is fundamentalist country. --Andrew Mueller
Review
Slingshot is, as always, centred around Phelps exemplary acoustic picking, captured live. But this time around he's played this down even more than last year's Beggars Oil EP. As he says in the accompanying press release: 'Earlier on I found myself absorbed by the sound of the guitar...These days my curiosity and passion are piqued by words'. Sure enough, these words approach the condition of poetry, full of memories, snapshots of tiny details and great miniature character studies. Yet they're all delivered with the same authentic smokey voice that signifies 'weary blues'. Without recourse to the CD booklet you'll find they wash over you like wind and rain. And unfortunately it's difficult to pay the weather your full attention.
Recorded with two bands -one featuring long-time fan Bill Frisell, the other with three members of Zubot and Dawson -the albumdoes succeed as a piece of warm ensemble playing. Frisell's trademark tones on ''Not So Far To Go'' and ''Cardboard Box Of Batteries'' turn Phelps' ragged tales into softer, more melodic snapshots, while Jesse Zubot's fiddle on ''It's James Now'' lifts the foursquare blues format into a more folk-flavoured realm a little reminiscent of Nickel Creek.
It seems needlessly harsh to critique a work with such integrity. But while a live performance by the man is never less than compelling, this studio effort resists repeated attempts to engage the listener. Neither blues testament nor T S Eliot, Phelps runs the risk of our indifference. And that, for a man this talented, would be a crime. --Chris Jones
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Customer Reviews
slingshot what more could be said.
its wonderful from start to finish,perhaps the most accessible of kelly's albums to date.phelps continue's the journey through the underbelly of american life, now under the stewardship of lee townsend who brings a beautiful sensebility to proceedings.
the inclusion of bill frisell is masterful.
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