Mpls: Kelly Doyle at Berlin (July 25, 2026)

Kelly Doyle has signed to Strolling Bones Records and will release Thieves on August 14, 2026. The 9-track set was produced and mixed by Steve Christensen (Khruangbin, Steve Earle) and features Doyle on guitar, Will Story on bass, Jeremy Bruch on drums, and Nelson Deveraux on saxophone. Recorded in his hometown of Houston, TX, and after many years in the ambient sphere, the new album ends a sort of wilderness period for the musician. With Thieves, he pivots back to the guitar centered in an instrumental album that takes root in jazzier terrain with a radiant energy.

Several Kelly Doyles have been floating around Houston for years. He’s as likely to be found playing guitar while leading a jazz trio in a late night setting as he is adding colorful flourishes in support of a singer-songwriter, a honky tonk performer, or a lounge act. Doyle’s guitar tone will sound familiar to those who know his work, but the way he applies it to the music is thoughtful, melodic, and playful. He has long played well with others, adding bright lines to the retro lounge of Clouseaux and, later, wild old-school honky tonk solos with Robert Ellis. He’s also played with Phosphorescent, Craig Finn, What Made Milwaukee Famous, been prominently featured on Khruangbin’s Late Night Tales, and more. Plug Doyle in and he can play with just about any act.

Today, Magnet Magazine premiered a live performance of the album’s first single, “Bats Are Cute.” Playful exotica meets psychedelic jazz, the song starts light and quirky, then veers into Bitches Brew-inspired improvisation. Doyle says, “This is a song directly inspired by the rhythmic quality found in Martin Denny’s Exotica record. It is something I can’t seem to shake. I love the sounds of 50s exotica. Pairing that with the Miles Davis Bitches Brew / Live-Evil era panning effects over the improvising created a really nice mood. It made the exotica side of the song less campy and more creepy.” Filmed at Ovations in Houston, the performance was directed by Javier Fernandez with cinematography by Vincent Briseno. See it HERE.

When Doyle found his way back to the guitar, he found himself listening to a lot of Grant Green, the storied guitarist associated with jazz, but whose recordings grew ever more expansive during his career. Green’s approach to guitar in the ‘60s and ‘70s led to a posthumous renown as many of his guitar parts would find second lives as hip-hop samples. With Thieves, Doyle has similarly put his compositional skill to work, with pieces that don’t showcase his instrument so much as they nestle it into compositions that unfold over the course of five minutes to leave lingering impressions. “I really don’t think of it as jazz at all,” Doyle says. “I know it’s a necessary descriptor that you have to use. But I think of it as just part of a trajectory of things I dig.” Those things also include the work of Lloyd Green, the late, great Nashville A-Team session player whose pedal steel work is echoed by some of Doyle’s warping string bends, the dark, immersive sounds of ambient/electronic composer Tim Hecker, and the reverb-rich sound of fellow Telecaster master Danny Gatton, who, like Doyle, could play a country session and a jazz session back to back.

The compositions on Thieves are concise. “I wanted the melodies to be strong,” he says. “There’s a thing with some modern jazz where it feels like people are on stage kissing their muscles. I don’t care for that. It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy shredding. But I also like intention and purpose. I think compared to my other records, this one sounds less manicured. A little freer, a little looser. But I wanted to focus on the melodies and rein in everything else.”

The album will be available across streaming platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. Thieves is available for pre-order NOW via STROLLING BONES RECORDS.

Thieves Track Listing:

1. Thieves
2. Pink Houses
3. Cold Open
4. Needlerooser
5. A Year and a Day
6. Big Fish
7. Found a Knife
8. Bats are Cute
9. Lodge Scene

Kelly Doyle Live:

July 23 – Milwaukee, WI – Sugar Maple w/ Nelson Devereaux
July 25 – Minneapolis, MN – Berlin