Wow.

No other way to describe it. Utter awe. Michael Kelsey is phenomenal. For starters, he's a one-man band. But this isn't the typical guy-with-a-guitar that you'd find at open mic nite covering Bob Dylan and Dave Matthews. Not at all. He calls his style "Aggressive-Progressive Acoustic Guitar." Think Michael Hedges meets Steve Vai, and throw a bunch of toys into the mix. Then you might get something close to ...continued the wonder that is Michael Kelsey.

John, Chris, and I got to Frederick's early. Even hearing Kelsey warm up and sound check was a treat. He's got nearly every toy a guitarist could dream of—we're talking digital loop sampling, E-bow, wah, multi-effects pedal, drum machine, and more—and plays all of it in alternate tunings on a beautifully-worn Taylor acoustic with a soundhole pickup. Tonite there was a small drum set on stage as well, some of the pieces of which Kelsey played with feet or hands while looping a bassline he sampled onstage, and a local drummer who was apparently a friend-of-a-friend of his sat in for improv rhythm on a few songs.

Anything in the entire club was fair game to be incorporated into a song. Kelsey did some improvised lyrics about people in the crowd and the underwear decorating the overhead fan. He played guitar, bass, and drums all on his guitar, percussively slapping out a foundation and playing a beat and a melody over it. Other stage "props" were a marble from a girl's purse (this made a really neat visual trick while using the volume pedal and e-bow), a sample of an audience member singing something very much off-beat, and a harmonica which he invited someone to play. He even used the mic and mic stand, not only as they were intended, but also as percussive sounds and mechanisms for playing "slide" guitar during solos. Even when he busted a string, he kept playing, really playing, while improvising some words to get someone to bring him his guitar case, then kept hammering out a bass line while restringing his guitar!! I mean, the guy played like a schizophrenic, there was so much going on onstage!

I left this evening having purchased two of his CD's and signing up for his mailing list. One of his "buddies," a rather drunk fellow who told us how he used to manage a band that Kelsey opened for once or something, told us that Kelsey had recently won a nationwide guitarist contest and played with Eric Clapton at one of the college Bowl games. If this is true and Kelsey becomes big someday soon, I recommend finding a small venue now and catch this guy in an intimate atmosphere. Your jaw will hit the floor. And he'll figure out a way to work that into his performance.