Carolina Angel

I met Jeff Kline of the JB Kline Band in between sets at Havana in New Hope a year and a half ago. It was just a few days after I’d been diagnosed with cancer. I thanked him for his music and told him that it made me feel better in light of the news I’d just received.

A down to earth, what you see is what you get kind of guy, Jeff has been writing and performing songs for decades. There wasn’t much time to talk as Jeff made his way around the room, stopping at every table to say hello and thank people for coming out. But he took time to show a complete stranger another side. His compassion was genuine, and he shared with me a recent sadness in his own life. We agreed there’s only one direction in life…straight ahead. You just have to keep on keepin’ on.

After that I was curious to learn more about Jeff. A New Jersey original who grew up on a farm, he hit the road at a young age to follow his bliss. It’s clear to anyone that hears him perform that music is his passion. Over the years he performed with artists the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Patti LaBell, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Johnny Winter and B.B. King.

The thing that most struck me about Jeff is that all the roads he’s traveled and all the songs he’s written and performed notwithstanding, he’s still at it, writing and playing with passion wherever people will listen. Jeff is a “portrait of the artist” for our times. In some ways he reminds me of my friend Dan Smythe, a sculptor in upstate New York who passed away several years ago.

Later that summer I saw Jeff perform with bass player Kevin Joy on a grassy area outside the Lambertville public library. The library is just a few minutes from his music store over a coffee shop on Bridge Street, where he sells everything from vintage acoustic and electrical guitars to mandolins and ukuleles. He also gives music lessons, and that night he proudly performed a song written by one of his students.

Between songs Jeff talked some about a recent trip to Nashville where he hung and played with different musicians. He said he thought he was a pretty good guitar player, but hanging and playing with those guys in Nashville made him realize “they can really play.”

The high point of his performance was when he sung “Carolina Angel.” The song is about the young Jeff Kline, hitchhiking his way through South Carolina, the angel who gave him a ride in her pickup truck, and how in one sense, there are no strangers; we are all interconnected in some unknowable way.

For me, “Carolina Angel” is also about following your bliss regardless of your age. To have a dream and to be passionate about it isn’t the sole prerogative of the young. It is the domain of the young at heart. In Jeff’s case, he joyfully and generously shares his bliss with anyone who is fortunate to hear him perform, including tonight at Havana in New Hope, Pa. from 6-10 p.m. So if you’re in our neck of the woods tonight, come on down to Havana, kick back with your favorite beverage and if you’re lucky, Jeff and the boys just might play “Carolina Angel.”