It’s not as much of a journey from religious music to Jerry Lee Lewis and the Die Hard movie franchise as you might think. For someone who began her recording career as a Christian artist, Sam Phillips has had a very secular professional life. Born Leslie Ann Phillips in 1962, she cut her last album of religious music, produced by future husband T Bone Burnett, in 1987. (Phillips and Burnett divorced in 2004.) Phillips then jumped ship to the Virgin label in 1989 and began recording albums of thoughtful-yet-stirring music to document her new life as Sam Phillips. Critics’ fave Fan Dance, her 2001 debut record for Nonesuch Records, featured lovely string arrangements by the legendary Van Dyke Parks. Phillips is currently in the middle of a year-long multimedia project called Long Play and also has a tune placed in Oscar-contending film Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges. In addition, Phillips will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with her.
Phillips: My list is long, but I will randomly pick a few: “Alice” by Tom Waits, “Gentle On My Mind” by John Hartford (made known by Glen Campbell), “Marie” by Randy Newman, “Mistaken For Strangers” by the National, “Underwear” by the Magnetic Fields, “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat” by Bob Dylan, “Trouble In Mind” by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Video after the jump.
One reply on “Sam Phillips’ Fan Dance: Great Songs”
I’m not aware of Trouble In Mind, but based on the rest of the list, I think I need to purchase some music! Beyond the original recordings, I’ve always had a warm place for Mark Eitzel’s version of Gentle On My Mind, a song famous for delicate lyrics, that needs fine interpreters like Campbell and Eitzel to do it justice.
The line “That makes me tend to leave my sleepin’ bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch” pretty much sums up a certain segment of my life.