Denver – Blues guitarist and poetic songster Kelly Joe Phelps returns on Friday, October 20 at 8 p.m. to wow Swallow Hill audiences with his guitar mastery and songwriting prowess. He will be performing songs from his new CD Tunesmith Retrofit. Tim O’Brien has called Kelly Joe “a musical slight of hand master.” With song lyrics described as “impressionistic,” “noble” and guitar playing praised as “exquisite,” Kelly Joe is a jazz-guitarist-turned-blues-man with a songwriting ability in league with the great blues songwriters. Kelly Joe has been compared many times to Townes Van Zandt and to Bruce Springsteen in storytelling ability. “Like the sound of some impossible invention built from theremin, pedal steel, saw, omnichord, sitar and the whir of hummingbirds, the sound of Kelly Joe Phelps' guitar has no derivation and no blueprint, save his own soul. He sings with an urgent, slurred whisper (like he hears the law outside the juke-joint door), and he writes songs – sometimes visionary, mostly sustained by the holy blues – with creative gravitas that's soaked in all the experiences of a life deeply lived. One doesn't expect such lyrical and vocal talent from virtuoso guitar improvisers.”- Riverfront Times.

Champion fingerstyle guitarist, Michael Chapdelaine–known as the only guitarist to win first prize titles in both Classical and Fingerstyle guitar from The Guitar Foundation of America International Classical Guitar Competition and in the National Fingerstyle Championship in Winfield, Kansas–will open for Kelly Joe. Michael is an internationally recognized performer, a two time winner of the highly sought-after National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant and the winner of the Silver Medal in Venezuela's “Alirio Diaz” Eighth International Guitar Competition.

For tickets visit swallowhillmusic.org (please note this alternate web address for public access) or call (303) 777-1003. Discounts are available for Swallow Hill members.

About Swallow Hill Music Association:
Helping people make music since 1979, Swallow Hill Music Association is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the United States as a source for folk, roots and acoustic music. With more than 2,100 members—some of whom are also volunteers—, Swallow Hill provides a place to celebrate music that is rarely heard elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain Region. Three concert venues house more than 150 performances a year, featuring some of the world's great artists as well as up-and-coming new talent. The Julie Davis Music School at Swallow Hill provides a valuable and affordable extra-curricular educational resource to the community with more than 50 music instructors involved in more than 240 adult classes and 70 children's classes annually.

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