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Read: JERSEY BOOKSHELF: Sensation Blues: A Rock’n’Roll Novel, by Mike Greenblatt, The Jersey Sound, April 2025

Sensation Blues, by New Brunwick music journalist Kelly, makes you want to listen to these artists from long ago and far away. You can practically hear them as you turn the pages, living with McKinley, despairing at his parents locking up his guitars in punishment after he skips school to explore blues-drenched cities like Memphis and New Orleans, and especially after he stays up all night practicing his guitar in a local graveyard like Robert Johnson did. You can feel the gravitation pull of the blues on this young man’s soul. Sure, he’s constantly getting into trouble for it, but he’s too far gone to ever look back. The first thing I did after reading this was to go listen to some of the music that McKinley Robinson loved. So will you. Read the full review. 

Read: Sensation Blues gets to the heart of rock and roll - WXPN | Vinyl At Heart, by John Vettese, 88.5 WXPN FM, November 2024

"When a young person finds their purpose, and that purpose is music, it can be a magical thing. There’s so much it can teach about the world; there’s so much it can teach about oneself. Whether it’s the deep dives fandom sends us on, exploring the history of an artist or a scene, or it’s the way lyrics and melodies speak to our inner truths, making us make sense of our emotions, music can be an enriching force on life that most of us experience in one way or another.

For McKinley Robinson, the protagonist in Bennett Kelly’s debut novel Sensation Blues, a newfound love of music — specifically his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi’s chief export, blues music — takes him from being a teenager adrift, living in his overachieving older brother’s shadow, to studying guitar in a cemetery in the middle of the night, obsessively listening to Son House and Muddy Waters, busking on street corners to save for a guitar amp, cutting class to dip his toes in the Memphis scene. Released this fall, the novel follows McKinley’s journey of music-discovery and self-discovery in the birthplace of the blues.

A journalist based in New Brunswick, New Jersey, 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. I caught up with Kelly over email to talk about the book; read our conversation below, and hear more this Saturday, November 16th from 2 to 5 p.m., when he appears at Repo Records at 506 South Street for a book signing event." - John Vettese. Read the full interview here

Read: Capital Area (MI) Blues Society, by Anita McDaniel, President, March 2025

Sensation Blues is a new book by Bennett Kelly. When Bennett reached out to CABS to do a review of his book, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Will it be a history of blues music and how Rock and Roll came to be? Fiction? Non-Fiction? Whatever the genre, for me, if a book doesn’t grab me with the first couple of pages, I won’t finish reading it. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case with Sensation Blues. What ensues is a story of a young man driven to play blues music, dedicated to his craft.

This is the story of McKinley Robinson, a fictional teenager from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Living in the shadow of his older brother Paul, who was a valedictorian and football star in high school, McKinley feels the weight of the expectations placed on him. His parents Leroy and Maria want McKinley to focus on school and football to get a scholarship, but McKinley is driven to play music.

Guided and encouraged by his uncle Ira, a professional blues musician, McKinley begins an intense education of blues music and its history starting with artists like Robert Johnson, Son House, Charley Patton and so many more. The reader is brought along on this journey as Mckinley immerses himself in the music and struggles to find balance between his family’s expectations and his need to play the blues. No matter whether you are just starting out in your blues education or are a knowledgeable blues fan, this book is a good read that will appeal to young and old alike.

Read: Book Review by Steve Jones, President, Crossroads Blues Society (IL), March 2025

I love this novel. It’s a great story and a trip through a young man growing up and into discerning his passion for music. It’s a fast read– the book moves along smartly with vibrant pacing and a cool tale. If you are a blues fan I think you will find this book fascinating!

This book is a fictional account of a teen in Clarksdale whose older brother has gone off to college. His musician uncle takes him under his wing and helps his nephew McKinley Robinson work to achieve his dream of becoming a bluesman. It’s also a story of self discovery and coming of age for McKinley.

McKinley’s older brother Paul is a football star in High School. He into theater and he’s on the debate team and in the glee club. Paul is everything McKinley isn’t, and that’s hard for him to live up to. McKinley breaks his wrist and drops off the football team. Paul goes off to New Jersey on a football scholarship and the expectations on McKinley rise as he’s next in line.

With the broken wrist he decides not to return to football, but his Uncle Ira brings him a harp to play and then he begins to tutor him, ostensibly on weekends, but it turns into also being late night and early morning sessions playing in the graveyard for the “haints.”

McKinley keeps up with the sessions but he’s burning the candle at both ends. It catches up with him and he gets ill, and on top of that his younger twin sisters discover his nightly concerts with the “haints” and rat him out to his parents. He recovers, get put on restriction for a couple of weeks and the parents accede to a more livable schedule with uncle Ira.

Ira uses cassette tapes to add to his tutelage of McKinley. He likes the easy rewind, so McKinley’s old boombox aids him in his lessons. During the two week grounding, Ira is off to blow his horn and play his jazz while his nephew moves from two months of only Robert Johnson into the world of Charlie Patton, Son House and other blues greats that expand his acoustic repertoire.

As this begins, McKinley’s Dad finally fesses up to having been a bluesman before moving into his career as a preacher. He and the family began in Memphis before moving back to the Delta, and Dad was a bluesman as Uncle Ira confirms. McKinley starts doing family concerts, then Ira has him move on to busking to earn money to buy an electric guitar and move into the world of Chicago blues.

Things progress rapidly through the school year for the 16 year old. Visits to a juke joints and many ups and downs with parents and school ensue. He goes electric, gets what he needs to play, sits in with many an artist and so much more. I won’t spoil the rest of the story for you, but suffice it to say that McKinley uses his brother as a means to expand his horizons in order to help his music studies over the summer before his next year in school.

Read: Blending Fiction with Blues History, by Tom Baldino for the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation - December 2024

"Bennett Kelly is an award-winning music journalist from New Jersey who has written 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. Without delving too deeply into the story, the protagonist, McKinley Robinson, a 16-year-old high school junior, is just separated from his older brother and best friend Paul, who has left to play football at Rutgers University (the New Jersey connection.) An overachiever, Paul excels in sports, the arts, and the classroom, and his parents expect McKinley to do the same. With that first name, one that any person with knowledge of the blues would recognize, belongs to the most famous bluesman of all, Muddy Waters, his destiny is in music. With the help of his Uncle Ira, a musician by trade, the adventure begins. 

Bennett tells a story of both real and fictional characters and places that take place over the next year. He does so in an interesting and vibrant manner that draws the reader in, making the blues world, past and present come alive. It’s a real-life rollercoaster ride for Mac and his family, and definitely held my interest. For those with limited knowledge of this music, there is a wealth of information to be gleaned, set in a most interesting story. For those of us who have a historical background, it’s fun picking out the facts from the fiction, while enjoying this year-long trip.

I highly recommend you pick up a copy, regardless of your background, and enjoy this timeless story." - Tom Baldino

Read: BlowUpRadio.com's New & Notable NJ Music 11/11/24 - Lazlo

"I don't know if I've written about a book since I had to do book reports back in school. Don't get me wrong, I read books, though with limited time to do so it takes me a month or two to finish a book. And most of the books I read are non-fiction.

But when local music journalist Bennett Kelly sent me his debut novel, "Sensation Blues," I was intrigued.

Many first novels are based on one's life, but as Bennett is from New Jersey, and this book is set in the contemporary Mississippi Delta, I doubt it is directly autobiographical, though he does say, "I set out to write a blues novel to honor the blues and the mythological figures that excited me as a kid."

He does that quite well, via a coming of age story of a teenager whose older brother just left for college, leaving the younger teen trying to figure out who he is without his older brother around. His uncle starts teaching him blues guitar and about the blues, and he takes to it and becomes obsessed with it.

It took a dozen or so pages for me to get into this book (maybe because I don't read a lot of fiction), but once I did I found the characters and story engrossing. By the time it got to the end, I was thoroughly entertained, and wanted the story to continue. If that is not a ringing endorsement for checking this book out, then I don't know what you need." - Lazlo