Sky Like A Broken Clock

This is K-J’s fourth album, each one something of an advance on its predecessor. A stunning live performer, he recorded Sky… in just a week – and it shows. There’s a lovely loose feel to it, the opus made with musicians he had hardly met previously, much less worked with.

What, then, does one get for the money? There’s ten tracks, all from Kelly Joe’s pen, each and every one a little diamond. It’s an album that doesn’t respond easily to an early judgement call; this material has to be allowed to marinade slowly in order to show its best side, which is why stuff like Tom West’s Hammond organ on ‘Mr. My Go’ sounds so good a little after 9am, following a late one last night.

What Kelly Joe has done with this record is to have taken the rough framework of the blues and moulded it into a very individual design, creating on the way a work of no small significance. I won’t play this record every day, but I will return to it for inspiration. Frequently.