Like Catcher in the Rye crossed with blues-infused blockbuster SINNERS minus the vampires... Set in the contemporary Mississippi Delta, SENSATION BLUES introduces precocious practitioner McKinley Robinson in pursuit of his “It.” With beloved older brother Paul off to play college football across the country, McKinley pours himself into his blues passions, hustling from the juke joints of Clarksdale’s Delta Avenue to the neon marquees of Beale Street, Memphis. Under the auspices of their hell-raising uncle Ira, McKinley cavorts with blues legends and courts unavoidable trouble with would-be authority figures on his clear-eyed leap over the cliff of self-discovery. "Holy cow! I really enjoyed the story from so many angles. It’s an authoritative primer to the origins of the blues (which everyone who’s into rock and roll should know), it’s a coming of age story for a young man with a singular passion and who recognizes it within himself early on and will not be denied, and it demonstrates quite clearly that if you have a passion that you shouldn’t let anything get in your way. It also shows the value and power of having a mentor to whom you can turn and who can set and keep you on the right path with good advice when necessary. It was hard to put down once I got really into it as I wanted to see what was going to happen to our protagonist next." - Jeff Grob, drummer, Looking Glass & Starz "Kelly’s vivid prose places us solidly in McKinley’s world, one where realizing his talent becomes his everything, where parents just don’t understand (but one supportive uncle does), and where music made three-quarters of a century before he was born might not provide all the answers, but that’s okay when the questions they’re igniting in his head are this exciting." - John Vettese, WXPN 88.5 FM "A novel that weaves the story of a fictional contemporary Clarksdale, Mississippi family, with the rich tapestry of the giants of the blues... Kelly creates a story that would hold the interest of both casual observers of the genre as well as those well-versed in it." - Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation