Not many people heard
Kelly in the late '80s, even within the alternative rock community, for two reasons: his albums were only available on cassette, and his moody folk-rock was totally out of sync with the rest of the Seattle indie scene. That's unfortunate, as this solo debut revealed him as a tuneful, but not sappy, troubadour singing sad, quirky, but appealing songs. Influenced by late-'60s psychedelia and British folk-rock, with a vocal timbre reminiscent of British rockers such as
Ray Davies and
the Zombies'
Colin Blunstone, the arrangements put acoustic guitars to the fore, with tasty touches of light percussion, sitar, and Casio. Originally issued on cassette only in 1987 by Green Monkey, it also appeared on LP on DiDi Music in 1992, and then as one of four CDs in the 1999 box set
Melancholy Sun. That package also included a couple of other albums originally released only on cassette and an otherwise unavailable 1997 album,
The Rosary and the House of Jade.