Shawn Phillips
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Shawn Phillips (born February 3, 1943, Fort Worth, Texas, USA) is a folk-rock musician, primarily influential in the 1960s and 1970s.
Phillips has recorded twenty albums and worked with musicians including Donovan, Paul Buckmaster, J. Peter Robinson, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bernie Taupin and many others. The Texas-born singer/songwriter was described as "The best kept secret in the music business" by the late rock impresario Bill Graham.
In the 1960s Phillips worked as a session player on several Donovan albums including Fairytale, Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, performed at the Isle of Wight festival, sang on the Beatles' "Lovely Rita", and was cast to play the lead in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar (he had to withdraw due to his heavy recording and touring schedule). In February 1969 Phillips wrote and performed, with The Djinn, the music for the controversial Jane Arden play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the Arts Laboratory on Drury Lane.
Phillips worked the folk music scene in Los Angeles, New York's Greenwich Village, and London. In 1967, Phillips moved to Positano, Italy, where he remained throughout the 1970s, recording the albums Contribution, Second Contribution, Collaboration and Faces'.
Four of his albums Faces, Bright White, Furthermore and Do You Wonder made it into the Billboard Top 100. In addition, the singles "Lost Horizon" and "We" made Billboard's top 100 in 1973 (63 and 92 respectively).
His album No Category, featuring his longtime collaborators Paul Buckmaster and Peter Robinson, was released in 2002.
In 2007, his first live album, Living Contribution, was released, along with a Live DVD of the same title.
Phillips today lives in Port Elizabeth, South Africa with his wife Juliette and their son Liam. He divides his time between writing, touring and his work as an emergency medical technician (EMT), firefighter, and 1st Officer, Navigator, and Extrication Specialist with the National Sea Rescue Institute of South Africa (NSRI).
Discography
Albums
- I'm a Loner (1964) [re-issued in 1965 as Favourite Things]
- Shawn (1965) [re-issued in 1966 as First Impressions]
- Contribution (1970)
- Second Contribution (1970) US #208
- Collaboration (1971)
- Faces (1972) US #57
- Bright White (1973) US #72
- Furthermore (1974), A&M Records US #50
- Do You Wonder (1974) US #101
- Rumplestiltskin's Resolve (1975) US #201
- Spaced (1977)
- Transcendence (1978)
- Beyond Here Be Dragons (1983)
- Best of Shawn Phillips (1990)
- The Best of Shawn Phillips: The A&M Years (1992)
- The Truth If It Kills (1994)
- Another Contribution: Anthology (1995)
- No Category (2002)
- Living Contribution (2007)
- At The BBC (2009)
Singles
- A Christmas Song (1970, A&M AMS-819)
- We
- Lost Horizon
- Anello (Where Are You)
- Do You Wonder (1974. A&M)
