Concert Review - Blast from the Past

Way back in this post, I talked about the musical influences in my life and where they came from and who introduced me to them I mentioned two college buddies who got me interested in lots of music. Among the most prominent were Jethro Tull, George Harrison and John Lennon. But they also introduced me to some obscure music including a singer/songwriter named Shawn Phillips. Believe me when I say that Phillips is off the beaten path. He worked with such immortals as George Harrison, Donovan and the Beatles. Lived with Donovan and Paul Simon. Among his adventures is living in Texas, Italy and now South Africa. He spent three months in the hospital when a boat propeller entangled his very long hair and crushed his skull. He studied opera. He was a fireman in Texas for a number of years. And, his music is an eclectic mix of jazz and folk and rock and electronic and funk and bluegrass with some opera thrown in for good measure. His guitar playing is outstanding. Bio Here

I first listened to him in 1972 and immediately fell in love with the devil may care attitude so evident. Social consciousness, rebellion against everything considered status quo, a sense of anger and wonder, often in the same song, made it easy. I collected his record albums (hey kids, check with your parents, there really were records, about 3x the side of a CD, played on a victrola [hey kids check with your parents about victrolas…]) and listened to him all the time. We got to see him in concert several times too when he played small venues in Manhattan and Long Island and he always put on a great show. Over the years I continued to listen to him, on occasion and I converted his albums to CDs.

Now fast forward, oh I don’t know, maybe 35 years or so. My friend in work, Tom, is an audiophile, has a collection of thousands of CDs of bands popular and obscure. He sees someone in concert at least once a week on average and has been to several big music shows including one in Austin Texas in the spring. One day while discussing some music, I mentioned Phillips. He knew the name but had never heard him. At the time I was moving from CDs to digital storage and offered him one of the Phillips CDs and he like it a lot. I ended up giving him all the ones I had. One day after that he came to me with some exciting new. Phillips was going to play at a local club. Tom suggested getting tickets and we did. The show was two nights ago and I still am on a bit of a high.

The place was full, maybe a hundred people of so. This is just a great way to see anyone and we were not disappointed. Phillips put on a fantastic 90 minute show. He started with a song from long ago, played 3-4 brand new pieces and then embarked on a nostalgia tour of his early to mid career. He had about 9 guitars on stage and some electronic equipment. On four different songs he used looping. This is where he would record a basic track and sing with it, then add a second track as he replayed the first, now recording both. He did it this way on one of the songs. On two others he did three tracks which sounded great. For his finally he laid down 6 tracks using 6 different guitars, including a bass guitar and then pulled out a seventh one and proceeded to play about a 5 minute guitar piece over the recording. This was an absolute show stopper. People got up to give an ovation during the final solo, it was so good. When done, he bowed, said he needed to change his shirt and would return to autograph stuff. Tom had brought his camera and a couple of the CDs and a crowd of about 15 people remained. He came out and talked to each person individually. I got to shake his hand and told him that the last time I had shaken it was about 30 years ago and he laughed, saying he remembered that venue very well. Both Tom and I got pictures with him and left with big smiles on our faces.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can go here to listen to 12 of his songs.

One final note. Both Tom and I noted that he really seemed to enjoy being up on stage and playing. He is not pretentious at all as many musicians are and besides bantering with the crowd and telling many stories, he sometimes would just sit back while playing, with closed eyes and a smile on his face.