Houston-based guitarist Kelly Doyle is one of modern Texas music’s most versatile utility players, working over the years with Robert Ellis, Phosphorescent, Craig Finn, What Made Milwaukee Famous and others. With Thieves (Strolling Bones), he’s crafted a deeply personal, delightfully unclassifiable collection of instrumental compositions. “Bats Are Cute” serves as an ideal introduction.
“It’s a song directly inspired by the rhythmic quality found on Martin Denny’s Exotica record,” says Doyle. “It’s something I can’t seem to shake. I love the sounds of ’50s exotica.”
Not that Doyle is particularly interested in revivalism’s narrow scope. “I made the exotica side of the song less campy and creepier by pairing it with Miles Davis Bitches Brew/Live-Evil-era panning effects over the improvising,” he says. “It created a nice mood.”
That friction between the familiar and the far-flung is a guiding sonic principle on Thieves. Produced and mixed by Steve Christensen (Khruangbin, Steve Earle), the album also features bassist Will Story, drummer Jeremy Bruch and sax player Nelson Devereaux. Its nine tracks mark something of a return to the guitar for Doyle after years of exploring ambient music, though he hesitates to call this new direction jazz.
“I know it’s a necessary descriptor you have to use,” says Doyle. “But I think of it as part of a trajectory of the things I dig.”
We’re proud to premiere the live performance video for Kelly Doyle’s “Bats Are Cute,” filmed at Houston’s Ovations nightclub by director Javier Fernandez, with cinematography by Vincent Briseno. Thieves is out August 14.
—Hobart Rowland
