Silencing the Inner Critic
Acoustic folk rock pioneer Shawn Phillips will make Swallow Hill’s Tuft Theater a special stop while on his 2010 60 city tour of the USA and Canada. The tour marks the 50th Anniversary of Phillips’ diverse and lauded music career and the evening will be presented in an entirely acoustic form without the trappings of any gadgetry. It will also be the first time his acclaimed albums “Spaced” and “Rumpelstiltskin’s Resolve” are available on CD.
With over twenty albums to his credit, Phillips’ has been associated with some of the most respected names in the industry including Donovan, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bernie Taupin and many others. In ’60′s Phillips co-wrote with then London roommate Donovan on ‘Sunshine Superman’ album and introduced the sitar to pop music. He coached George Harrison on sitar and sang on the Beatles’ “Lovely Rita”. He started finding his way into the folk scene of the early ’60s playing the legendary clubs of Greenwich Village and Haight-Asbury with the like of Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin (roommate) and Ritchie Haven among others.
The 1970′s produced some of his most well know albums ‘Contribution’, ‘Second Contribution’, ‘Collaboration’ and ‘Faces’. The singles, “Lost Horizon”, “We” and “Woman” made Billboard’s top 40 and also received radio play in Canada and the U.K. He has sold more than 3 million copies of his 18 albums. From the liner notes of the recently released and brilliantly compiled CD, ‘Shawn Phillips: At The BBC’, the liner writer Nigel Cross notes, “It’s something of a cliché to say it but unbelievably Shawn Phillips remains on the periphery of mainstream rock, despite selling hundreds of thousands of albums and singles since he first came on the scene in the 1960′s.” The CD completely covers the keen level of musicianship and genius of Shawn Phillips.
In 2008 Phillips toured the USA and Canada in support of his DVD/CD projects ‘Living Contribution: Live At Kirstenbosch Gardens’ filmed and recorded live at the beautiful venue in Cape Town, South Africa. The CD release ‘Living Contribution: Both Sides’ features a second CD with Shawn playing solo, live and unplugged. The tour also included a first time reunion with Paul Buckmaster and J. Peter Robinson, key musicians in his early recordings, in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a record setting sold out crowd at the Weesner Amphitheater. The evening resulted in the DVD “Living Contribution: Reunion Concert”. While on tour he also made appearances on NPR’s “World Café”, XM Radio’s “The Loft” and Studio SXSW
The 50th Anniversary Tour began in late April and continue through November. Phillips lives in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with his SA born wife and son.
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