Imagine, for a moment, pulling down a heavy, cobwebbed music box from a high shelf in a dim corner of an antique barn. In the book that accompanies “Washington Phillips and His Manzarene Dreams,” a newly remastered boxed set that will arrive later this fall, the writer Michael Corcoran calls Phillips’s sound “highly developed to the point of being almost psychedelic.” Its prettiness is disorienting, hypnotic. They simply do not seem born of this earth. Since at least 1991, when Yazoo Records issued “I Am Born to Preach the Gospel,” the first digital compilation of Phillips’s work, listeners have been trying to suss out exactly what Phillips was doing in the makeshift Dallas studio where these songs were recorded. But Washington Phillips-a stocky, snuff-dipping gospel singer from East Texas, who recorded eighteen songs for Columbia Records between 19-is an uncommonly captivating cipher. There aren’t many artists for whom the come-on “New Research!” would yield much fuss.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |