Sam Phillips - Creators at Carnegie, NPR, Zankel Hall, New York City, 10-19-2004

Sam Phillips doesn't get nearly as much attention as she should. I really like her stuff. So when I found this FM sourced bootleg a few days ago, it went to the top of my pile of albums to post. It's a concert broadcast on NPR radio in 2004.

In the 1990s, she had a poppy, Beatlesque style that should have made her a big star. Then, in 2001, she came out with the album "Fan Dance," in a more intimate, acoustic style. It was still great stuff, getting lots of critical praise, but she basically turned her back on her earlier style at that point. In 2004, the album "A Boot and a Shoe" came out, again in her new style. She was on tour to promote that album when this concert happened. She only played one song from her 1990s era, "Animals on Wheels." So this mostly consists of songs from her 2001 and 2004 albums.

The music here is unreleased. The sound quality is excellent. There were some cases where the sound of cheering at the end of one song didn't match the sounds at the beginning of the next song. So I did a little bit of editing to make those transitions sound good. 

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 talk (Sam Phillips)
02 Foolin' Myself (Sam Phillips)
03 How to Quit (Sam Phillips)
04 I Wanted to Be Alone (Sam Phillips)
05 talk (Sam Phillips)
06 Fan Dance (Sam Phillips)
07 Animals on Wheels (Sam Phillips)
08 talk (Sam Phillips)
09 When You're Down (Sam Phillips)
10 Edge of the World (Sam Phillips)
11 I Dreamed I Stopped Dreaming (Sam Phillips)
12 Taking Pictures (Sam Phillips)
13 talk (Sam Phillips)
14 If I Could Write (Sam Phillips)
15 Infiltration (Sam Phillips)
16 talk (Sam Phillips)
17 Reflecting Light (Sam Phillips)
18 Say What You Mean (Sam Phillips)
19 One Day Late (Sam Phillips)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/V8qPXMAx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/u3VhaeDYLHJg4eZ/file

The cover photo is from a concert in the Carolina Theatre, in Durham, North Carolina, on September 19, 2004. 

Sam Phillips - These Boots Are Made for Walkin' - Non-Album Tracks (1992-1998)

I'm a really big fan of Sam Phillips, especially her poppy phase with the albums "The Indescribable Wow" (1998), "Cruel Inventions" (1992), and "Martinis and Bikinis" (1994). In particular, I consider "Martinis and Bikinis" a five-star album and a must have for anyone into Beatlesque pop. This album is a stray tracks collection that largely overlaps with that period. I suggest you get those three albums first, if you don't have them already. Then try this if you want more in that same vein.

I'm especially pleased to share the song "Fantasy Is Reality-Bells of Madness." I got this from my musical friend Lil Panda. It's an unreleased song cowritten by Phillips and the legendary Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. A version of the song came out on Rob Wasserman's 1998 album "Trios," performed by Wasserman, Brian Wilson, and Wilson's daughter Carrie. But this is a different version, sung mainly by Phillips with some very Beach Boys-eqsue backing by Brian Wilson.

This isn't one of my typical stray tracks albums, because a bunch of the songs come from one of Phillips' studio albums. After the three great albums I mentioned above, she put out the album "Omnipop (It's Only a Flesh Wound Lambchop)" in 1996. As you can tell from the album title alone, it's a strange, experimental album. I suspect she got bored of her poppy style and wanted to try something new. After that album, she would wait five years then release an album in a different and much more subdued style, 2001's "Fan Dance." She's kept to that style ever since. Anyway, I consider "Omnipop" to be very hit or miss. So I've put only the ones I like on this album.

The last two songs are from "Zero Zero Zero," a kind of best of from her poppy period, before saying goodbye to that and having her change of musical direction. 

I believe all the songs are originals except for "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy." The latter is unreleased and sounds a little bit rougher than the rest, but only marginally so.

01 It's Not Too Late (Sam Phillips)
02 Fantasy Is Reality-Bells of Madness (Sam Phillips with Brian Wilson)
03 You Lost My Mind (Sam Phillips)
04 These Boots Are Made for Walkin' (Sam Phillips)
05 My Heart Belongs to Daddy (Sam Phillips)
06 Entertainmen (Sam Phillips)
07 Animals on Wheels (Sam Phillips)
08 Zero Zero Zero (Sam Phillips)
09 Power World (Sam Phillips)
10 Faster Pussycat to the Library (Sam Phillips)
11 Slapstick Heart (Sam Phillips)
12 Disappearing Act (Sam Phillips)
13 Holding On to the Earth [New Version] (Sam Phillips)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16700323/SAMPHLPS1992-1998_ThseBotsAreMdeforWlkin_atse.zip.html

I'm not sure where I got the cover art photo from. But it appears to be from the right time period.

Sam Phillips - Largo, Los Angeles, CA, 6-6-2019

It's a real shame about Sam Phillips. She's a great musician, yet so few people know about her. A lot of that is due to her own choice. She's stated she isn't interested in being famous, as she had a taste of that in her early days as a Christian music hit maker as "Leslie Phillips," and didn't like it. She hardly ever tours or do much to promote herself. 

But if you're reading this, hopefully you have the taste to check out her music if you haven't already. This is an ideal starting point, in my opinion. It's an excellent sounding bootleg that has songs from all parts of her career (except for her Christian "Leslie Phillips" years, which she has distanced herself from).

As mentioned above, Phillips almost never plays concerts. But when she does, it's usually at the Largo. This is a small club in Los Angeles that is a very special place that musicians love to play more for the fun of it than to make money. Phillips lives in Los Angeles, so it's probably very convenient for her as well. We're very lucky to have this recording, since according to setlist.fm, she's only played three concerts from 2013 to 2020.

Although this essentially is a one-off concert, you wouldn't know it by listening to it. For many years, Phillips has played with a small string section, and they join her here. In 2001, she pretty much reinvented her musical style, switching from Beatlesque pop to a more mellow singer-songwriter style. Ever since then, she turned her back on her earlier style, maybe playing only one song from her pre-2001 years if you were lucky. But for this concert, she finally seems to have warmed up to her older music, playing three early songs. That makes sense, because on her more recent albums she's sometimes gone back to her earlier, more poppy styles. She also does songs from different points in her career, almost making this into a "best of" selection. 

This concert began with a long medley of some of her early songs. I didn't include it because it was an instrumental done only by the string section before Phillips took the stage. It sounded a bit like forgettable Muzak. The concert is stronger without that.

This is a bootleg, and it's an audience recording, not a soundboard. However, sometimes audience recordings can sound as good as soundboards, and this is one of those times. Keep in mind this concert took place in a club of only a couple hundred people, if it was full. It was an appreciative audience that was dead silent during the songs, so there probably wasn't much difference from a soundboard if it was recorded well, which it was. One minor snag was that the banter between songs was a bit quiet and the audience applause at the end of each song was a bit loud, but I've made adjustments to fix that.

This concert is an hour and 18 minutes long.

01 talk (Sam Phillips)
02 I Want to Be You (Sam Phillips)
03 World on Sticks (Sam Phillips)
04 Continuous Limit (Sam Phillips)
05 talk (Sam Phillips)
06 Plastic Is Forever (Sam Phillips)
07 talk (Sam Phillips)
08 How Much Is Enough (Sam Phillips)
09 talk (Sam Phillips)
10 Fighting with Fire (Sam Phillips)
11 talk (Sam Phillips)
12 American Landfill Kings (Sam Phillips)
13 talk (Sam Phillips)
14 Same Rain (Sam Phillips)
15 talk (Sam Phillips)
16 Different Shades of Light (Sam Phillips)
17 I Need Love (Sam Phillips)
18 talk (Sam Phillips)
19 She Remembers Everything (Sam Phillips)
20 Edge of the World (Sam Phillips)
21 Candles and Stars (Sam Phillips)
22 What Happens Next (Sam Phillips)
23 talk (Sam Phillips)
24 Reflecting Light (Sam Phillips)
25 Teilhard (Sam Phillips)
26 talk (Sam Phillips)
27 So Glad You're Here (Sam Phillips)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15249591/SamPhps_2019_LrgoLosAnglesCA__6-6-2019_atse.zip.html

The cover art photo comes from a different concert in Los Angeles in 2019, held at the Grammy Museum.

Sam Phillips - Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, 7-25-1994

Have you even heard of Sam Phillips? Unfortunately, most people haven't. I think her music is really good, especially her poppy phase from the late 1980s through the 1990s. 

She's had a strange career. She started out as Leslie Phillips, doing Christian music. But after releasing a few albums like that, she changed her name to Sam and changed her musical style, almost entirely dropping the Christian aspect. Her new style was highly commercial, in my opinion, very catchy and Beatlesque, and with her writing all of it. But it didn't sell well at all, and she remained obscure. At the start of the 2000s, she switched styles again, going for a more sedate and stripped down sound.

Personally, her 1994 album "Martinis and Bikinis" is my favorite. It's a five-star album in my book, for sure. I would post that here, except I assume it's still in print. So instead I'm posting this concert. It's from the supporting tour for that album, and the vast majority of the songs from it are played, as well as some of the best songs from her previous album (though with the "Leslie Phillips" years forgotten). 

There are very few Sam Phillips bootlegs, since she'd never been that popular. But this is an excellent soundboard. I made a few minor fixes. For a couple of songs, such as "The Turning" and "Same Rain," the volume sometimes dropped down for no reason, so I balanced those spots to match the rest of the song. Also, because it's a soundboard with very little crowd noise, it sounded odd to me when each song ended and barely any audience reaction could be heard. So I boosted the volume of the clapping and cheering. It's still rather quiet, but at least now you don't have to strain to hear it.

This concert is an hour and two minutes long. Most of the songs are played with a full band. But a few, including the first one, are just done acoustically.

If you like this, definitely check "Martinis and Bikinis" too. Then also check out "The Turning," The Indescribable Wow," "Cruel Inventions," and her other albums.

Anyway, if you're looking for some lost gems, check this out.

01 talk (Sam Phillips)
02 The Turning (Sam Phillips)
03 Same Rain (Sam Phillips)
04 talk (Sam Phillips)
05 Signposts (Sam Phillips)
06 Circle of Fire (Sam Phillips)
07 talk (Sam Phillips)
08 Baby I Can't Please You (Sam Phillips)
09 Holding On to the Earth (Sam Phillips)
10 talk (Sam Phillips)
11 Strawberry Road (Sam Phillips)
12 talk (Sam Phillips)
13 Same Changes (Sam Phillips)
14 If I Fall (Sam Phillips)
15 Raised on Promises (Sam Phillips)
16 talk (Sam Phillips)
17 Fighting with Fire (Sam Phillips)
18 talk (Sam Phillips)
19 I Need Love (Sam Phillips)
20 Wheel of the Broken Voice (Sam Phillips)
21 Lying (Sam Phillips)
22 talk (Sam Phillips)
23 Private Storm (Sam Phillips)
24 Answers Don't Come Easy (Sam Phillips)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15249590/SamPhps_1994_VarietyPlyhouseAtlantaGA__7-25-1994_atse.zip.html

It's shocking to me how few photos I can find of Sam Phillips in the 1990s. I found a video of her playing on a song on TV in 1994, but it was rather low-res. So instead of using a screenshot from that, I prefer this photo of a concert from 1989. She's blonde, but I like how the red lighting makes it look like she has bright red hair and even reddish skin.