Okay, show of hands…how many of you hundreds dozens ten readers knows who Sam Phillips is?
Hint: It’s not the guy from Sun Records. He’s been dead for years.
No, Sam Phillips is a girl. To be more specific, she’s an eclectic singer/songwriter in a sub-genre some call “lo-fidelity”, kind of a raw, sparse sound that almost sounds like something out of Sun Records. Sam Phillips was once married to T-Bone Burnett, who did the music for Walk the Line and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, as well as his own recordings. (If you’re familiar with his music, you get an idea what Sam Phillips sounds like; heck, you probably already know Sam. I’m rambling now…)
Anyhow, I’ve been a distant fan of Sam Phillips for years, and followed her journey ever since she renounced her previous work as contemporary Christian artist Leslie Phillips in the late 1980s. As Sam Phillips, she’s continued to write and record out of the mainstream, gained a loyal following over time, and even played a role in Die Hard With a Vengeance. And more recently, she’s taken on a whole new experiment–which is the purpose for this post.
As I’ve said before, the musical landscape is in a huge transition right now, the main catalysts being the rise of indie music and the easy access to digital downloads. More and more artists are realizing that they must find other ways to make a living than just selling their music (since it’s so easy to download and share it now). I’m always intrigued to find out what artists are doing to adapt, and Sam Phillips has been trying something totally different.
She’s dropped her record label, gone “indie”, and started a music subscription service on her website called “LongPlay.” For 52 dollars a year (that’s a dollar a week, for you people counting on your fingers and toes), subscribers get five freshly recorded EPs throughout the year, a full-length CD at the end of the year, and access to other interesting materials along the way as Sam gives her fans a window into her ongoing creative process. I personally like the idea because it’s more than just marketing music–it creates a living dialogue between the artist and her fans. It will be the most recorded material in one year that Sam has ever done, and it’s a true experiment.
But it seems to be working.
The latest EP, Magic for Everyone, has garnered such a huge response that on April 20, Sam put it up for public release as a download for sale to the public. You can sample it and buy it on Amazon or itunes.
Whether or not you dig Sam’s lo-fidelity vibe, this is a creative venture for a highly creative artist. It will be interesting to see what comes next.
Buy “Magic For Everybody” from Amazon
Download from itunes:
This YouTube vid is not from the EP–I just think it’s a cool song.