Journal Saturday, May 25, 2013

Cleveland Free Times: Phillips's "Don't Do Anything" Deserves Acclaim, Part of "Spectacular Body of Sophisticated Pop Albums"

Sam Phillips's tour with the music of her latest release, Don't Do Anything, continues with a stop at the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern tonight in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Free Times's Michael David Toth has this to say about Sam's varied career and her more recent work:

For more than two decades, singer-songwriter Sam Phillips has crafted a spectacular body of sophisticated, shadowy pop albums. Although progressively modern, her work is populated with time-warp ghosts of Tin Pan Alley and Revolver-era Beatles. Phillips has also created original soundtracks for the entire run of the Gilmore Girls TV show, and her song "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us" has recently been prominently covered by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Still, Phillips tends to travel a bit under the mainstream's radar, and her 2004 A Boot and a Shoe album stands as one of this decade's most criminally overlooked recorded masterpieces.

With any luck, her follow-up, Don't Do Anything, will get the acclaim it deserves.

Sam talks to Toth about her career, particularly the inspiration behind and making of the new record and her previous two Nonesuch releases.

"Fan Dance, the first record I did for Nonesuch, was really fun because ... we stripped everything away to get at the songs and the performances," she tells Toth. "I found that a lot more rewarding. I feel like Fan Dance and A Boot and a Shoe and now this record have been stripping things away and slowly adding things back in, but with a different intent."

You'll find the complete article at freetimes.com. For more on Sam's tour, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

• Journal Topics:
• On Tour
• Reviews

• Go to Sam Phillips's page

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