A Musician's Life: Sam Phillips

Series: A Musician's Life
From: WXPN
Length: 00:05:00

Most people confuse Sam Phillips with the man who discovered Elvis Presley and Jonny Cash. But the Sam Phillps on this edition of the feature was formerly known as Leslie Phillips a superstar within the world of Christian Rock. For the past twenty years the genre-defying musician and former wife of T-Bone Burnett has been crafting genre-defying music Read the full description.
Sam Phillips AML mix.mp2
None.
To hear the full audio, sign up for a free PRX account or log in.

Also in the A Musician's Life series

A Musician's Life: Children's rock musician Ralph Covert (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Ralph Covert doesn't see much difference between the music he made with his Chicago indie-rock band The Bad Examples and the songs he churns out for legions of children.

A Musician's Life: C.J. Chenier ( the prince of Zydeco music) (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

As a young sax player, C.J. Chenier planned to pursue a career in jazz. Then his father Zydeco great Clifton Chenier, recruited his son to play in his Red Hot Louisiana ...

A Musician's Life: Duncan Sheik (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Singer songwriter Duncan Sheik feels much more at ease watching other people perform his work. He likes writing and recording his own albums but he got his greatest thrill ...

A Musician's Life: Ben Taylor (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Ben Taylor resisted becoming a musician for a lot of reasons, beginning with the pressure of his lineage. Taylor is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Still he gave ...

A Musician's Life: G. Love (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Meet Garrett Dutton III, AKA G. Love. He was 19 and busking on the streets of Philadelphia when he hit on his signature style--what he's termed "The hip-hop blues".

A Musician's Life: Justin Townes Earle (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Justin Townes Earle talks about his childhood as the son of songwriter Steve Earle, his teenage infatuation with drugs and alcohol and why he prefers mountain music of ...

A Musician's Life: Chris Walla (of Death Cab for Cutie) (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Chris Walla doesn't take anything for granted. As producer and guitarist for one of today's most popular bands, Chris is happy his old audience remained loyal when Death Cab ...

A Musician's Life: Liam Finn (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

In New Zealand Liam Finn's dad Neil Finn (of Split Enz and Crowded House) is royalty. Both in the U.S. and at home Liam is trying to establish himself with his own ...

A Musician's Life: Martin Sexton (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Musician Martin Sexton is a pretty happy guy. After years of struggling, he seems to have it all.

A Musician's Life: Carrie Rodriguez (00:05:00)
From: WXPN

Carrie Rodriguez thought she'd spend her career backing other musicians. Now the fiddler and singer songwriter has folks who back her plus a new album.

Piece Description

From the time she was a child, Los Angeles Born Leslie Phillips was drawn towards religion and spirituality. She gravitated to fundamentalist Christianity when she was still young and began a successful career as a Christian rock singer. Gradually she found more contentment singing "secular hymns". She changed her name to Sam Phillips (after her childhood nickname) and collaborated with legendary producer T-BoneBurnett. The two embarked on a long professional and personal relationship. They married in the early 1990's. In 2004 they divorced. Sam Phillips' new album "Don't Do Anything" is the first she produced on her own, without the expertise of T-Bone Burnett.

Broadcast History

this will air all next week on WXPN-FM in Philadelphia. It will also be made available as a podcast through NPR.

Timing and Cues

begins with :02 music followed by "This is AML. I'm TT with SP" ends with "For a Musician's Life, I'm TT" with about :02 music...fades to 5:00

Sign up for PRX

Log in

Piece Statistics

Topics

Formats

Tones