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Re: Sam bashing
-----Original Message-----
From: Otherone at aol_com
>A few years back I went to see Bruce Cockburn and Sam Phillips opened for
him.
>She played her songs solo acoustic because of problems with her band. this
was
>the first I had heard her. She was Great in that setting. I went out and
>bought the 2 albums that were available at the time, brought them home and
>wondered"what was going through this guys mind that produced this? It
seemed
>to me that he was more worried aboud his own selfish musing than her music.
>They were horrible.
>
If you like that solo show, you really need to pick up her record, "The
Turning." It was originally recorded and released back when she was still
Leslie Phillips, but was reissued this year under her current nom de plum.
It has that same kind of spooky intimacy that was the hallmark of those
performances (I remember seeing her on that tour at Mississippi Nights in
St. Louis, looking a little strange in her smart red suit and earthy,
gigantic acoustic guitar). But I must take a little exception with your
opinion of "The Indescribable Wow" and "Cruel Inventions". I think both are
fine records, "Cruel Inventions", in particular, is one of the finest
examples of literary, intelligent, and economical songwriting I've seen.
And the producer in question is none other than one TBone Burnett, who's
been behind such hits as Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, the WallFlowers,
Bruce Cockburn, et al. He and Sam were such a good fit, artistically and
personally, she married him after they produced "The Turning" together, and
he's produced all of her albums, increasingly in collaboration with her. So
she's as much to blame for the sound of her records as Henry. The acoustic
thing with Cockburn was the diversion from normal, made more from an
economics than artistic standpoint. That, and the guitar player she did have
on that tour had to leave less than half way through when his father died,
forcing Sam to play on her own.
But give Sam's records a chance. I think with an open mind, she will win you
over pretty quick.
BSC