Sounding Like Himself: Kelly Doyle Releases His New LP

Although Houston guitar virtuoso Kelly Doyle has three EPs available online, this week he will celebrate his first release on vinyl as he combined two EPs In the Weeds and Stranger Danger into one full album.

Doyle will perform with his band and Louisiana based pedal steel player Dave Easley on Friday, October 17 at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge.  

For this release, Doyle partnered with Sig’s Lagoon Records, a new project by Tomas Escalante, owner of Sig’s Lagoon and subsidiary of Pravda Records in Chicago.  Fans can purchase the LP at Sig’s Lagoon in the Mid Main neighborhood just a block from the venue. Purchase of an album serves as entrance to the show.  

“They were both recorded in the same way,” says Doyle of the EPs.  “I used the same tape machine and process so they sound like one record when you play them together.”  

Like his other projects, Doyle counted on his good friend, recording engineer Houstonian Steve Christensen.  He often starts his songs at home, as exercises in melodies. He then combines his guitar work with self-made dynamic drum and keyboard samples. 

Doyle takes his tracks to Christensen’s studio where the two work to peel back layers and simplify the sounds. “I always kinda naturally gravitated towards that just over arranging and then saying fuck it, I’m gonna mute half of this stuff because sometimes you have to explore to figure out what’s good,” he says explaining that part of the process is letting go of cherished sections of songs.

His final steps for completion include running the tracks through Christensen’s old tape machine in the studio to get the completed cuts. “He literally has to shake it to keep it working,” says Doyle of Christensen’s vintage tape machine. “I have a feeling that was the last session with that tape machine before it gets fixed.”  

“Stranger Danger after the first song is very dark and spooky to me,” describes Doyle. ”I feel like this is the darker spookier side of the last record but to me they’re kind of both the same record, he sys comparing In The Weeds and Stranger Danger. The whole thing is very low fi and grainy.” 

“I think lately I’ve just gravitated towards a spookier element. I think it might just be my head space at this point but it also could be just from watching a lot of David Lynch movies or something.”  

Doyle, along with Escalante, was previously in instrumental band Clouseaux and counts these songs as a major influence in his songwriting for In the Weeds / Stranger Danger.

“In the past couple of years I’ve been thinking more about some of those melodies. Jay Brooks the bass player for Clouseaux, it was his baby and he just wrote the weirdest, off kilter melodies.” Though the band is not currently active, they recently had their song “Paraiso” featured on the Netflix show Wednesday.  

Doyle’s influences are also rooted in the great jazz guitar player Django Reinhardt and guitar genius Danny Gatton. Though he admits he doesn’t play their songs often anymore, their influences are always present. Doyle describes how a huge part of learning is attempting to emulate others or in his case, trying to mimic the pedal steel guitar on an electric guitar.  

“There’s a lot of weird counter point pointing, bending one string one direction and another string another. Some of those things I just like those sounds so I’ll try to develop them so I’ll just practice it but I have no idea if I’ll ever use it or if it’s a useful thing.”   

‘For Doyle, this release is not only a good reflection of his signature style and his past experiences but the whole project reflects a Houston-based effort starting with himself and his band all the way up to pressing at 610 Record Manufacturing and releasing with Sig’s Lagoon Records featuring artwork  by local artist Carlos Pozo.  

“It’s all the things I’ve gone through all smushed together. It’s very strange. I try to just follow what I’m interested in instead of trying to emulate specific things but emulating things, that’s how you develop your voice.”   

Kelly Doyle will celebrate the release of In The Woods/Stranger Danger at 6:30 on Friday, October 17 at Shoeshine Charley’s Big Top Lounge, 3714 Main, $10 or purchase of vinyl for admission. In The Woods/Stranger Danger is available at Sig’s Lagoon.

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