''Slingshot Professionals'' is an album by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer and guitarist

Kelly Joe Phelps Kelly Joe Phelps (October 5, 1959 – May 31, 2022) was an American musician and songwriter. His music has been characterized as a mixture of delta blues and jazz.Ann Powers, ''The New York Times'', February 9, 2000. Career Kelly Joe Phelps grew ...

, released in 2003.

History

''Slingshot Professionals'' was Phelps' first album with producer

Lee Townsend Lee Townsend is an American independent music producer, curator, artist manager and co-owner of Songtone (Songline/Tone Field Productions), specializing in recordings of singer-songwriters, contemporary composers, improvising musicians, and cross ...

. Phelps is joined by guitarist

Bill Frisell William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts ...

and bassist Keith Lowe on two tracks: "Not So Far to Go" and "Cardboard Box of Batteries," and the rest of the album features bassist Andrew Downing, as well as fiddler

Jesse Zubot Jesse Zubot (of Britannia Beach, British Columbia) is a Canadian musician primarily known for his unique violin playing. Zubot also works as a composer, producer and recording engineer. History Zubot's acoustic-instrumental group Zubot ...

and guitarist

Steve Dawson ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

. Petra Haden (daughter of jazz musician

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

) whose album Townsend was producing at the time, harmonizes on one song.

Reception

Music critic Mark Allan wrote in his

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review the album was "well worth a listen" The UK magazine

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

wrote "The transformation from revivalist bluesman to contemporary singer-songwriter, which began on 1999's '' Shine Eyed Mister Zen'', continues apace on his fifth album. His songs are now mini stories, sans verse-chorus-bridge restraints, populated by seekers of truth and peddlers of dreams."

Track listing

All songs written by Kelly Joe Phelps. #"Jericho" – 6:29 #"Window Grin" – 3:50 #"Slingshot Professionals" – 5:07 #"Not So Far to Go" – 5:16 #"It's James Now" – 4:22 #"Waiting for Marty" – 5:05 #"Knock Louder" – 4:24 #"Cardboard Box of Batteries" – 5:18 #"Circle Wars" – 7:05 #"Rusting Gate" – 4:51

Personnel

– vocals, guitar, harmonica *Andrew Downing –

acoustic bass The acoustic bass guitar (sometimes shortened to acoustic bass or initialized ABG) is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar. Like the traditional electric bass guitar a ...

–

Weissenborn Weissenborn or H. Weissenborn is a brand of lap slide guitar manufactured by Hermann Weissenborn in Los Angeles in the 1920s and 1930s. These instruments are now highly sought after, and form the base for most non-resonator acoustic lap steel ...

lap steel guitar The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of playing a traditional ...

– electric guitar *Chris Gestrin – organ, piano, accordion *

Scott Amendola Scott Amendola (born February 6, 1969) is an American drummer from the San Francisco Bay Area. His styles include jazz, blues, groove, and rock.Andrew Gilbert"Exploring New Degrees In Drumming" ''sfgate.com'', October 3, 2004. Amendola is origi ...

– drums, percussion, talking drum *

Petra Haden Petra Haden (born October 11, 1971) is an American musician and singer. She is the daughter of the jazz bassist Charlie Haden, and is the triplet sister of bassist Rachel Haden (her bandmate in That Dog) and cellist Tanya Haden (married to sing ...

– background vocals * Keith Lowe –

– mandolin, violin Production notes: *Produced by

. *Engineered by

Tucker Martine Tucker Martine (born January 14, 1972) is an American record producer, musician and composer. In 2010, ''Paste'' Magazine included Martine in their list of the 10 Best Producers of the Decade. Early life Tucker Martine, the son of singer and son ...

and

Shawn Pierce Shawn Pierce is a television and film score composer. He has resided in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Winnipeg. Career Pierce is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he majored in Film Scoring. He has worked as a music editor ...

. *Edited and mixed by Shawn Pierce *Assistant engineers - Sheldon Zaharko and Greg Kolchinsky *Mastered by Greg Calbi *Design by Chris Pew

References

External links

Discography at Kelly Joe Phelps official web site.
{{Authority control 2003 albums Kelly Joe Phelps albums Rykodisc albums