Review: Know My Name by Kelly Bell Band

By Mike O’Cull

The Kelly Bell Band is exactly the kind of genre-bending, rule-breaking, and color-smearing group the music scene of 2019 desperately needs. Originally formed 24 years ago to back up the legendary Bo Diddley, the Kelly Bell Band of today lives outside of all the lines and freely mixes blues, funk, rock, metal, hip-hop, and more into a compelling fusion of musical styles. The latest Kelly Bell Band record, Know My Name, comes out April 26th, 2019 and is the most progressive release in the group’s long history. Frontman Kelly Bell calls the sound Phat Blues and the description fits. The grooves are strong, the writing tight, and the vibe is fearless and heavy.

Bell and the band have made quite a name for themselves and have been voted Best Blues Band in the Mid-Atlantic region 12 years running, won two prestigious Maryland Music Awards, and was recently declared “Best Band” by Baltimore Style Magazine. Bell is also a familiar face and voice in the band’s Baltimore stomping ground, frequently appearing on local radio shows, commercials, and TV news programs. One spin of Know My Name and you’ll instantly know that these accolades are well-deserved and even bigger honors may very well be on the way.

The opening track and lead single is “Long Train,” a heady blues-influenced rock song with a huge mid-tempo pocket and knockout-punch guitars. It has the grit and intensity needed to hold its own at any rock festival in the world and a hook that’ll get you in one pass. What’s amazing is that the immediate next song, “Last $4,” is a straight-up swinging jump blues, complete with horns and the transition makes perfect sense. It’s a feat many other groups wouldn’t even attempt but this band is so deep that the soul connection beneath the styles makes its presence known at once. It feels right and natural.

These genre collisions happen all over Know My Name and they give the KBB a strong individual identity. The band’s influences and ideas exist on a spectrum, not in compartments, and meld together into a fresh, original sound. The title track, “Know My Name,” is a rock ballad with a funky underpinning, wailing harmonica and guitar, a heavy chorus, and an emotive lyric about divorce through a young son’s eyes. It’s a song we haven’t heard before and that’s what makes it brilliant. The sound, story, and execution are all fresh. It’s true modern blues that speaks to things modern people are going through right now.

 
Other Jones-inducing moments here include the smooth horn funk of “You Don’t Know,” the job-quitting shuffle of “I’m Gone,” and the bare-knuckle rock of “Dead Man Walking.” The band behind this incredible noise is Dane Paul Russell (Harmonica), Frankie Hernandez (Bass/Vocals), John Robert Buell (Drums/Vocals), Rahsaan “Wordslave” Eldridge (Vocals/Percussion), Ryan Fowler (Guitars/Vocals), and Eric Robinson (Guitars/Vocals) and shows itself to be the kind of soulful, powerful, and capable unit seldom seen in these one-dimensional days we’re living. Special guests like Dave Tieff of Laughing Colours, Julie Cymek of Sweet Leda, and Justin Schlegel of the 98 Rock Morning Show in Baltimore add outside flavor to the proceedings but the KBB needs no help in capturing anyone’s attention.

The record ends with the subdued minor key blues “In The Late Hours,” a simmering, slow burn track that winds this party down in a gentle way despite the song’s desperate, emotional lyrics. Again, the vibe and transition are just what the moment needs and require no explanation.

The Kelly Bell Band has a monstrous record on its hands with Know My Name, one that carries enough identity to overpower fans that have been lulled to sleep by too many sound-alike groups. This is the straight, strong stuff that gets heard around the world.

For more information on Know My Name by the Kelly Bell Band:

Website

Facebook