It’s not unusual for a solo artist to switch it up behind the mic and experiment with other genres, but few devote years of study to their pursuits. Fewer still embrace the transformation as wholeheartedly as singer-songwriter Kelly Joe Phelps.
After almost two decades of making bluesy jazz for artists and the working class, Phelps embarked on something of an academic walkabout, journeying deep into the history of Christianity. What he found laid the foundation for his newest album, the gospel-focused Brother Sinner and the Whale, which some are calling the best of his career.
Phelps spoke with CBC Music, in advance of his B.C. tour, from his home in Vancouver, Washington, about faith, finding his focus and his chances on Jeopardy!.
So, what was going on in your life while you were writing this album?
The record comes out of a two-year, pretty personal and intense study of the bible and Christianity and the history of it as well, as well as personal application of it ... I grew up with it and have been in and out of a relationship with it a handful of times, I suppose. Like a lot of people.
I’m always interested in how people find ways back to their faiths.
If one is going to come back to it, it certainly helps, in my case anyways, that I’ve had as much experience with it as I’ve had and it’s no stranger to me. I’m sure this is the first time I’ve ever decided to go back with as open a mind as possible and essentially try not to allow any contemporary influence in. Which is why not only did I return to studying the Bible, but I also decided it was imperative for me to go as deep as I could into its history as well. Take it on as a study, among other things, and try to learn a lot more about it than I ever knew and certainly learn a lot more about it than is typically taught in churches and things like that.
So, you could win that category in Jeopardy! is what you’re saying?
I would do fairly well [laughs]. They have to get me quick, it’s all hot in my brain right now.
Did you have any reticence about exploring this in your writing?
Yeah, I did. I didn’t have doubt that I wanted to do it, and I certainly didn’t have any doubt that I was ready to do it, but the obvious doubt was whether or not it was something I ought to be putting out into the world. Just from a place of humility, wondering if I was the right person to be doing that sort of thing and second to that, my inherent reticent to bother people if I don’t have to [laughs]. I was a little concerned about that as well.
A couple things happened fairly quickly that eased my mind on it all. When I kept my focus on it creatively, I had more ideas than I could handle. Initially when I thought, "Man, I shouldn’t be doing a whole record of this stuff," and tried to write other types of songs, I couldn’t come up with one idea at all. That was my first step in doing a whole biblically based, pilgrim’s progress record.
The second one was turning to my confidant, Steve Dawson, because we’d already been planning on making a record and I was sending him demo versions and at whatever point I realized I couldn’t come up with anything else, other than the stuff I was coming up with. I said, "Steve, looks to me like I might be on my way to making a gospel record," and his immediate reaction was, "Yes! By all means, go for it." So I thought, OK, I have at least one soldier beside me, I’ll be all right.
Do you have to think about the “marketability” of what you’re putting out into the world? I know a lot of people adore gospel, but many others think it’s not terribly cool. How much do those things factor in?
Certainly not anything involving coolness. I tend not to think about that too much. But it takes a lot of energy and time to put enough songs together to make a record and there’s a fair bit of money involved. There are certainly considerations. Nobody wants to go through all of that just to fall flat, but at the same time, I’ve always been far more concerned about making good art than selling records. Not that I don’t want to sell records, it’s not an altruistic thing, but I take example from a lot of my musical heroes, novelists and poets and painters and the arts in so many ways. The big winners to me are people who found ways that weren’t necessarily blueprinted by others. The self-imposed uniqueness and levels of truth that brings out as well.
And that gets more important to me as I get older and look around and it’s getting watered down constantly. Certainly within the context I find myself in, even though I have nothing to do with pop music, the roots music place is still seen in a broad way as a pop culture thing. But I’ve taken a lot more lead from my personal heroes and they were always the ones who took a lovely responsibility on and said if I don’t push forward I’m not really accomplishing things or honouring the gifts I’ve been given. I’m not benefitting humanity in the ways I actually can, which is essentially by showing people the way.
This record is getting the best reviews of your career. Is that validating? Did you feel confident about this when you had it ready to go?
Noooooo [laughs]. No, not at all. I can say, truthfully, I was very happy with the music and the record once it was finished. I usually can barely stand to listen to my records as soon as they are done and sometimes I don’t. This one’s survived the longest in my own personal listening.
Kelly Joe Phelps begins his B.C. tour Nov. 25 at Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria. He plays Nov. 29 at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts in North Vancouver.
Related:
Jim Byrnes
The Sourjourners: a gospel Christmas
John Hammond with Steve Dawson