Kelly's principal gig throughout most of his career has been as guitarist and frequent singer/songwriter for the Green Pajamas, an unexceptional '60s retro-style Seattle indie band. His solo outings, however, reveal a sensitive singer/songwriter -- in the best sense of that often pejorative term -- who recalls melancholic '60s icons such as Ray Davies and Tim Buckley without aping them. His grainy, straining voice is the very definition of a "yearning" vocalist, and well-suited to the ethereal and clouded romances he often details in his lyrics. Far more acoustic-oriented and simply produced than the Green Pajamas releases, his late-'80s cassette-only albums were among the most overlooked items in the Seattle scene, and indeed in indie rock as a whole.