Tunesmith Retrofit is an album by American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 singer and guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps

Kelly Joe Phelps

Kelly Joe Phelps is an American musician and songwriter. His music has been characterized as a mixture of delta blues and jazz.-Career:...

, released in 2006. It was his first recording on the Rounder

Rounder Records

Rounder Records, originally of Cambridge, Massachusetts, but now based in Burlington, Massachusetts, is a record label founded in 1970 by Ken Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton-Levy, while all three were still university students...

 label after five releases with Rykodisc

Rykodisc

Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...

. It reached #5 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums charts.

Reception

Music critic Thom Jurek praised the release in his Allmusic review, calling it "... another side of Phelps to be sure, as a songwriter who understands the actual music of poetry and creates a loose, coarse weave that allows the listener room to inhabit and live inside his songs. His rhythm is true, his words are impure, his songs are nearly glorious. Once more, Phelps shatters expectations and conjures something truly original and brave in the process."

Russell Hall of No Depression wrote "Few songwriters wear the mantle of troubadour as unassumingly as Kelly Joe Phelps. Eschewing the cloying introspection that tends to prevail among the coffeehouse crowd, Phelps writes snapshot vignettes borne from short-story traditions and delivers them in sturdy acoustic settings drawn from folk, free jazz, and country blues. Tunesmith Retrofit is leaner and more spartan than 2003’s Slingshot Professionals, putting the light squarely on his songwriting."

Track listing

All songs written by Kelly Joe Phelps.

1. "Crow's Nest" – 4:51
2. "The Anvil" – 3:35
3. "Spanish Hands" – 4:10
4. "Plumb Line" – 3:01
5. "Scapegoat" – 1:39
6. "Big Shakey" – 4:49
7. "Tight to the Jar" – 5:43
8. "MacDougal" – 3:20
9. "Loud as Ears" – 4:01
10. "Red Light Nickel" – 3:59
11. "Handful of Arrows" – 3:31
12. "Tunesmith Retrofit" – 2:10

Personnel

• Kelly Joe Phelps - vocals, guitar, banjo, melodica
• Steve Dawson - pedal steel guitar
• Chris Gestrin - piano, melodica, pump organ, Wurlitzer
• John Raham - drums
• Jesse Zubot - fiddle

Production notes:

• Produced by Kelly Joe Phelps and Steve Dawson
• Engineered by Steve Dawson and Sheldon Zaharko
• Mixed by Steve Dawson and Sheldon Zaharko
• Mastered by Steve Fallone
• Photography by Anthony Saint James

External links

• Discography at Kelly Joe Phelps official web site.