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Sam Phillips’ Fan Dance: Great, Very Long Songs With Three Parts

SamPhillipslogoIt’s not as much of a journey from religious music to Jerry Lee Lewis and the Die Hard movie franchise as you might think. For someone who began her recording career as a Christian artist, Sam Phillips has had a very secular professional life. Born Leslie Ann Phillips in 1962, she cut her last album of religious music, produced by future husband T Bone Burnett, in 1987. (Phillips and Burnett divorced in 2004.) Phillips then jumped ship to the Virgin label in 1989 and began recording albums of thoughtful-yet-stirring music to document her new life as Sam Phillips. Critics’ fave Fan Dance, her 2001 debut record for Nonesuch Records, featured lovely string arrangements by the legendary Van Dyke Parks. Phillips is currently in the middle of a year-long multimedia project called Long Play and also has a tune placed in Oscar-contending film Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges. In addition, Phillips will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with her.

Rodrigo-Segovia

Phillips: Joaquín Rodrigo‘s Concierto De Aranjuez conjures up the desert landscape every time I hear it. I love the earthiness of the classical guitar with the orchestra. Andrés Segovia will always be my favorite classical guitar player. There may be more technical or facile or speedy players, but his playing is soulful and warm. I saw one of his concerts before he died. After the sixth or seventh encore, it looked like he was tired of walking on and off stage, and he said, “It’s a stick. It’s just a stick I run my fingers up and down.” Video after the jump.

One reply on “Sam Phillips’ Fan Dance: Great, Very Long Songs With Three Parts”

This is a treat – I love the concerto. Its interesting that Segovia never publically played Concierto De Aranjuez. He was upset with Rodrigo because he allowed another guitarist to premier it. So Rodrigo wrote Fantasía para un gentilhombre for Segovia to apologize.

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