Blue Strawberry | "The best kept secret in the music business." - Bill Graham | Shawn Phillips

Shawn Phillips

“The best kept secret in the music business.”  - Bill Graham (legendary concert promoter and proprietor of the Fillmore West and East in the 60s and 70s.)
Shawn Phillips taught Joni Mitchell her first guitar techniques, and gave George Harrison his first sitar lessons. He wrote the music to Donovan’s “Season Of The Witch”, and has played with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood. He’s produced 27 albums, and is known far and wide for resolutely following his own path, and not acquiescing to the demands of the industry.
In his concerts, Shawn continues to evolve his creative skills. When he comes to a venue, he brings the sounds of a symphony orchestra, and plays his beloved songs as they were recorded in the studio. Solo and in real time. His Blue Strawberry show is an all-new show debuting on this tour.

One of most fascinating, enigmatic musicians to come out of the 70s singer/songwriter boom, Shawn Phillips is as much virtuoso musician as singer-songwriter. That combination has attracted a dedicated following. His refusal to pigeonhole his music -- which melds folk, rock, jazz, funk, progressive, pop, electro, classical, and global folk traditions -- to meet anyone’s expectations allowed him to  retain a cult following without ever finding the stardom that his talent probably merited. Though Phillips began recording for Columbia in the mid-'60s (and worked on Donovan's records from the period), it was his virtually  unclassifiable run of ten '70s LPs for A&M -- including Contribution, Second Contribution, Faces, Bright White,  and Spaced -- that established his reputation for boundless, nearly peerless creativity and virtuosity. Phillips is a musical shapeshifter. His work as a virtuoso 12-string guitarist combined with his four-octave vocal range fascinated and confounded some critics, but resonated with listeners. Phillips has always been able to get exactly what he needed from virtually any instrument he played, from his recordings, and from his on-stage collaborators. After relocating to Italy and lying low during most of the '80s and '90s -- he toured, wrote, and worked with musicians outside his native United States before transplanting to post-Apartheid South Africa, he resumed recording in earnest during the middle of the 21st century's first decade, sounding as if he had never left.
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