JELLYJELLYJELLY BENELLI "Blues Can Be Fun"

by jenny heying

Having reviewed a lot of rock and pop artists lately I thought it might be refreshing to pop over to Nitida Ridge to hear the folksy/bluesy sound of JellyJellyJelly Benelli and I’m happy I did. The first thing you notice about JJJ is that she has a sweet speaking voice and is extremely pleasant. Not great for the blues, but great for folk songs. She led off with “God’s Gonna Trouble The Water” and followed with “Keepin Time” and “Sorry”. All three songs were a pleasure to my ears. Her singing voice is deeper and fits perfectly. She delivers the songs with force and promise; you have no trouble hearing what she’s singing.

For the most part, the songs she performs are light and fun covering the gamut of issues but not deeply intense. She takes the problems and emotions and throws them out in a humorous way letting them run off your shoulders never to appear again.

Following with “Sorry” and “I Let My Daddy Do That” kept the mood going. With a strong acoustic guitar accompaniment, she professionally delivered the blues in an easy way. With “Can’t Afford To Lose My Man” and “Oreo Cookie Blues”, the humor continued and your ears perked up even more. You don’t get depressed at a Jelly show, she makes sure of that.


Most of all, Jelly is a story teller. She does that through her songs but also between songs. She has a number of anecdotes and ensures we know about the artist or song she covers. It’s a nice little history lesson.

Although Jelly does do the blues, like I said, it’s not depressing. She performs airy kind of blues like “Don’t Advertise Your Man” and “Thinking Blues” giving us a dose of the blues that we can sing along to. This Canadian singer gives her all but has a whole lot of pleasantness thrown in.

Jelly is a marvelous musician. Aside from a more than capable acoustic guitar, she also let us experience her flute during “I Had A Dream”. It added so much more diversity to her show making you wonder if she had something else up her sleeve. I won’t tell you that part.

She covers the standards, blues, folk and soul. She gives it all to us wrapped up in a nice bow and you want so much to untie it. Ah but she does that for you like on “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” which had energy and wittiness tied up in a package. You revel in the way she offers classic songs. Her voice deepened for “Bring It On Home To Me” and “Give Me One Reason” giving her more of a blues feel but no matter, whether deep or airy, you enjoy what you hear.

Her set continued with more engaging songs such as “Middle Aged Blues”, “It Might Be Love” before closing with a stellar version of “Ain’t Misbehavin”.

While JellyJellyJelly Benelli may be billed as a blues singer, she seems to take your blues away and replaces them with humor and just a plain good feeling all over. If you need some, check her out soon.