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Matthew Kelly | |
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![]() The band Kingfish in 1975. Left to right: Barry Flast, Robbie Hoddinott, Bob Weir, Dave Torbert, Chris Herold, Matt Kelly | |
Background information | |
Also known as | Matt Kelly |
Origin | San Francisco Bay Area |
Genres | Rock Blues |
Instrument(s) | Guitar Harmonica |
Matthew Kelly, also known as Matt Kelly, is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He plays guitar and harmonica. Kelly is best known for being the leader of the rock band Kingfish, and for his association with Bob Weir and the Grateful Dead.
Matthew Kelly began his musical career in the late 1960s, playing harmonica with some well-known blues artists, including Mel Brown, Champion Jack Dupree, Johnny Lee Hooker, and T-Bone Walker.
During this period, Kelly was also involved in the burgeoning rock music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. He played electric guitar and harmonica in several different psychedelic rock bands, along with fellow South Bay musicians Dave Torbert and Chris Herold.
Subsequently, Kelly lived in England for a number of months, and was a member of the rock band Gospel Oak. Upon his return to California, he renewed his association with Dave Torbert, who was then playing bass in the New Riders of the Purple Sage. Kelly would also sometimes hang out with a boyhood friend of his, Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. During this period Kelly occasionally performed as a guest musician with the New Riders or the Dead. He appeared on one track of the 1973 Dead album Wake of the Flood .
In 1973, Torbert left the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and he and Kelly formed the band Kingfish, along with Chris Herold, Robbie Hoddinott, and Mick Ward. In 1974, the Grateful Dead went on hiatus, and Weir became a full-time member of Kingfish, recording and performing with the band extensively. In 1976, the Dead started touring again, and Weir left Kingfish. Kingfish continued playing many live dates, occasionally with Weir in the lineup, and released several more albums. In 1978, Kelly played on a few tracks of the Grateful Dead album Shakedown Street . He also played on several songs at the December 31, 1978 Dead show that was later released on CD and DVD as The Closing of Winterland .
Kingfish disbanded, for a time, in 1980. In 1981, Kelly became one of the original members of Bob Weir's band Bobby and the Midnites, and appeared on the band's self-titled first album, along with Brent Mydland, Billy Cobham, Alphonso Johnson, and Bobby Cochran. In 1983, Dave Torbert died. The following year, Matt Kelly reformed Kingfish. From that time on, Kelly led a gradually evolving lineup of musicians, as Kingfish intermittently toured and released live albums. In 1987, Kelly also released a solo album, A Wing and a Prayer.
In 1995, Bob Weir formed a new band, Ratdog. Kelly was an original member of that band, along with Rob Wasserman and Jay Lane. Kelly played guitar and harmonica in Ratdog until 1998.
The intermittent existence of Kingfish, led by Matthew Kelly, continues to the present time. In 1999, the band released a studio album, Sundown on the Forest . They have also released a number of live albums of older material.
RatDog is an American rock band. The group began in 1995 as a side project for Grateful Dead guitarist and singer Bob Weir. After the Dead disbanded later that year, RatDog became Weir's primary band. They performed some Grateful Dead songs, a mixture of covers, and some originals. RatDog's repertoire consisted of more than 150 songs. They released two albums – Evening Moods (2000) and Live at Roseland (2001). RatDog has not toured since July 2014.
Robert Hall Weir is an American musician and songwriter best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the group disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead. Weir also founded and played in several other bands during and after his career with the Grateful Dead, including Kingfish, the Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, RatDog, and Furthur, which he co-led with former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. In 2015, Weir, along with former Grateful Dead members Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined with Grammy-winning singer/guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, and keyboardist Jeff Chimenti to form the band Dead & Company. The band remains active.
New Riders of the Purple Sage is an American country rock band. The group emerged from the psychedelic rock scene in San Francisco in 1969 and its original lineup included several members of the Grateful Dead. The band is sometimes referred to as the New Riders or as NRPS.
Shakedown Street is the tenth studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released November 15, 1978, on Arista Records. The album came just over a year after previous studio album Terrapin Station. It was the final album for Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, who left the band a few months after its release. The record was produced by Lowell George and John Kahn.
David Edwin Torbert was a Bay Area musician, best known for his associations with the Grateful Dead and the New Riders of the Purple Sage. He played bass for the latter group, replacing Phil Lesh during the sessions for their first album. He also played on "Box of Rain", a song from American Beauty, and on "Greatest Story Ever Told" from Bob Weir's solo album Ace. Additionally, he was a founding member, with Matthew Kelly, of the band Kingfish. Torbert died of a heart attack in 1982. Among the songs that Torbert wrote and sang lead with the New Riders were "California Day", "Contract", "Gypsy Cowboy", "Groupie", "On My Way Back Home", "It's Alright with Me", "Important Exportin' Man", and "Thank the Day".
Bobby and the Midnites is a 1981 studio album by Grateful Dead singer and guitarist Bob Weir and his then side project, Bobby and the Midnites. The band featured fellow Grateful Dead member Brent Mydland at that time, and also jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham. Though not a huge commercial success, the album did chart in the Billboard 200 and reached #158 in December 1981. The song "Festival" became a live concert favorite for the band. "(I Want to) Fly Away" was reissued on the 2004 compilation album Weir Here – The Best of Bob Weir.
Kingfish is the self-titled first album by the rock band Kingfish. It was recorded and released in 1976.
The Closing of Winterland is a four-CD live album by the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert performed on December 31, 1978. The concert was also released as a two-disc DVD. The title derives from the fact that it was the last concert in San Francisco's Winterland Arena, which was shut down shortly thereafter. The Dead celebrated the closing as an approximately five-hour-long party and invited some guests including guitarist John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service and Ken Kesey as well as actor Dan Aykroyd who provided the midnight countdown. It was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA on December 15, 2003 under the category of longform video, selling 200,000 units. The New Riders of the Purple Sage and Blues Brothers opened the show.
Kingfish is an American rock band led by Matthew Kelly, a musician, singer, and songwriter who plays guitar and harmonica. Kelly co-founded Kingfish in 1973 with New Riders of the Purple Sage bass player Dave Torbert and fellow San Francisco Bay Area musicians Robbie Hoddinott, Chris Herold (drums), and Mick Ward (keyboards). Ward died in a car accident later that year, and was replaced by Barry Flast, another keyboardist from San Francisco.
Weir Here – The Best of Bob Weir is a 2004 live/studio compilation album featuring former Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist and co-vocalist Bob Weir. A career retrospective, it features tracks from many of Weir's bands, solo and duo projects, as well as those from his main gig with the Dead.
Kingfish in Concert: King Biscuit Flower Hour is a live album by the rock group Kingfish. It was recorded at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on April 3, 1976, and released in 1996. Part of the recording that became the album was originally broadcast on the radio show The King Biscuit Flower Hour.
Sundown on the Forest is an album by the rock group Kingfish. It was recorded over a period of several years with different combinations of musicians, and released in 1999. It was the first studio album by Kingfish since Trident in 1978.
Live 'n' Kickin' is the second album by the rock group Kingfish. It was recorded live at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California. It was released as an LP in 1977 by Jet Records. It was released on CD in Germany in 1989.
Bobby and the Midnites was a rock group led by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. The band was Weir's main side project during the first half of the 1980s. They released two albums, but were better known for their live concerts than for their work in the recording studio. With a rhythm section that included jazz veterans Billy Cobham and, for a time, Alphonso Johnson, Bobby and the Midnites played rock music that was influenced by jazz-rock fusion.
Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings is a 9 CD live album by the American rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains three complete concerts, missing only the encore of the first concert. It was recorded on November 9, 10, and 11, 1973, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. The album was released on April 1, 2008.
Trident is an album by the rock band Kingfish. Their second studio album and their third album overall, it was recorded at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, and released by Jet Records in 1978.
Kingfish is an album by the rock band Kingfish. It contains previously unreleased tracks that were recorded at various times during the band's first eight years, and is sometimes referred to as Kingfish (1973–80). Released by Relix Records as a vinyl LP in 1985, side one was recorded in the studio, and side two was recorded live. It was released on CD in 1991.
Winterland: May 30th 1971 is an album by the rock group the Grateful Dead. As the name suggests, it was recorded live at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California on May 30, 1971. The album includes most of the second set from that concert, as well as the encore. It was produced only as a two-disc vinyl LP, in a limited edition of 7,500 copies, and was released on November 23, 2012, in conjunction with Record Store Day.
Dave's Picks Volume 42 is a three-CD live album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert recorded on February 23, 1974 at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco. It was released on April 29, 2022, in a limited edition of 25,000 copies.