Paul Kelley | Round the Bend

Published: March 29, 2011

Frederico Brothers member and versatile Missoula musician Paul Kelley has a solo CD out, featuring his original material and a cast of excellent Garden City players. It’s a mix of country and folk, R & B, blues and rock ’n roll, all genres Kelley is quite comfortable with.

Among the pickers lending a hand are Ellie Nuno, fiddle, Chuck Florence, sax, and Phil Hamilton on harmonica. Kelley adds acoustic and electric guitars and bass, and does all the singing.

He’s got a great voice and it’s in fine form here. His sound is a warm tenor-baritone mix, with a cool warble that is quite expressive. He sings all the harmonies, and it‘s uncanny how he can match the harmony vibrato to the lead voice. Takes a terrific ear to do that.

“Buddha Rock” is a great story – never mind the meditation, it’s rock ’n roll that will set us free. Ha! Kelley has a breathy delivery and there’s a Bo Diddly-esque “Hand Jive” rhythm to this one.

Kelley bends notes to good effect on the South-of-the-Border “Consolita,” and gets into a J.D. and the Jaguars (one of his old bands) mode on the slow-w-w blues song, “Kick Back,” where he digs way down deep and gravelly for notes. (“Put down that Twitter-Berry thing, baby.”)

“An American Soliloquy” is a two-parter; “Open Any Window,” written in 2003, makes reference to 9/11, and “Rang Dang Do” is about Kelley’s visit with a soldier just deploying to Iraq.

“Lost Moments,” a retro look at the late ’50s-early ’60s, is a love song with wailin’ sax and waltz-time piano. Kelley drags out “milksha-a-a-ke and two straw-w-wws” to stylish effect. I half-expected a fade-out here, like on the old 45s.

Everyone on the album contributes just the right mood to Kelley’s songs. Terrific production values abound as well.

Kelley also sings the song he wrote for the late Tim Ishler, a long-time and well-loved musician who passed away in 2008. “Tim’s Song” is sad and emotional, and a great tribute to a man we all still miss.

– Mariss McTucker