BY MARY JANE FARMER

HERALD DEMOCRAT

It's official. Kirby Kelley is "The King of the Blues."

The blues guitarist who hails from Sherman beat out more than 4,000 other guitarists from across the United States, one competition at a time, until he met four other finalists in the Guitar Center-sponsored final event in Hollywood, Calif. this past Thursday night.

Kelley has taken his music worldwide, and said of it all that it's really just about getting to play. "I would have never been able to do this without the love and support of so many people," Kirby said as he drove Saturday morning from Sherman to Dallas, where it all started. "Playing the guitar is great, but I didn't win because of that. I won because of all the support." He especially included his family in that support group. He added that he's never considered this a "competition," but it was just other chances to play guitar.

Kelley said he hadn't slept in days, beginning with the trip to Hollywood for Thursday night's concert. He said he got back home late Friday night, after a whirlwind of activities following his selection as "King of the Blues."

Kelley played fourth out of the five finalists. The original schedule was to have the winner perform with up-and-coming bluesman Joe Bonamossa after the announcement was made. But, he said, that announcement was a long time coming, and so there was little time following it for him to share the stage with Bonamossa.

A highlight of the trip, Kirby said, was meeting and working, if only for a short time, with Grammy award winner Pete Anderson. Throughout the contest, Kelley played to pre-recorded tracks laid downby  Anderson, who has been with Dwight Yoakum for years, and who has a wheelbarrow full of other musical accomplishments. At the finals, Anderson and a tuxedo-clad orchestra accompanied Kelley and the other contestants on stage.

"He's a sweetheart of a guy and just a wonderful person."

A recording contract was not among the myriad of prizes Kelley won along with this title. He did pick up a sizeable chunk of change, actually a $25,000 check, a Gibson 1959 Les Paul re-issue guitar, and a boatload of top-of-the-line guitar equipment, a feature in Guitar World magazine, and many other perks.

Also, Kelley now has endorsement deals from Ernie Ball, Marshall Amplification, VOX Amplification, and Gibson.

On Friday morning, Kirby was whisked off to the Levi's Beverly Hills showroom to select $2,500 worth of jeans. The life-long blues guitarist said that at $168 a pair, that didn't take too long to make his selections.

That (win) is awesome," Vance Van Peltonen said. "Kirby has been giving me guitar lessons for a while now. I truly believe Kirby is the best acoustic guitar picker I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot. It's an honor every time I take a lesson from that man."