Phat Blues Music

Kelly Bell Band

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 24, 1998)
• Original Release Date: November 17, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fowl Records
• ASIN: B00000G2C1
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #335,891 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Geoffrey Himes, The Washington Post, September 11, 1998

"The Kelly Bell Band call its debut album 'Phat Blues Music,' but the emphasis is more on the bawdy ghetto slang term, "phat," than on "blues." Baltimore's Bell has a big, warm baritone ... [and] doesn't divide his career into go-go music and jazz, but mixes them together and adds rock and blues as well. The album serves up a generous helping of 19 tracks and such guest stars as G. Love, Deanna Bogart, Big Jack Johnson, Gibb Droll, and Hosea "Heartbeat" Williams. Holding it all together are Bell's authoritative R&B vocals, which boast a sure grip on the groove, a sly sense of blues innuendo and a purring tone borrowed from his hero, Bobby "Blue" Bland. At a time when both go-go and the blues seem to have stalled, Bell illustrates how the two genres can help each other move forward.

Product Description

The Kelly Bell Band plays blues from the heart. Additionally, they mix in funk and rock to produce a danceable groove, which they call "phat blues." The combination of the soulful music and Kelly Bell's big stage presence makes the live shows an experience not to be missed, and that sound is captured perfectly on this, their debut album. Joining Kelly Bell and the band are special guests G. Love (of G. Love & Special Sauce), plus other blues greats such as Big Jack Johnson, Deanna Bogart, and Gibb Droll.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Smooth but Thin, January 9, 2000

By	Michael Ash-Sharbaugh (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

Well-programmed percussion melded w/ funky Clinton-esque(not Bill) vox. Grows on you like the ivy lining my ATL Rec Studio. Needs depth and more direction, but surely, with time this could well be a rising star!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not enough stars in the rating system ********^10, July 1, 2003

By A Customer

I've had this CD for 4 years now and it is STILL in the my top 5 favs in my collection. I play it over and over. Whenever I break it out for a party or company, people ask "Who IS that?". It's unlike anything they've ever heard.

I'm a big fan of blues and the only comparison I can make is to the incomparable Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even then, Kelly Bell is not the same as SRV, it's just that he has taken blues into something new to the same degree that SRV did but along a different path.

And if you think the album is good, you must see these guys LIVE! What a show! And it's just not K Bell and his band. I've never seen an audience get in to it like at his show. Shortly after the K Bell Band goes on stage the whole audience is pulsing with funk, groove and sexual energy.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you buy nothing else in your life get this album, February 9, 2001

By	Tom Scholfield (Crofton, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews

Phat blues music is the genre of this music that Kelly Bell creates with this wonderful album. Although based in Maryland all the world should start to enjoy this music for no one should be without it. It is a great mixture of funk and blues that creates of course Phat Blues.

By this album and the next one with out even thinking.