Grant-Lee Phillips
Mona Lisa
Susanna Little
Hickory Wind - Grant Lee Phillips, Buchanan, Bob
With his third solo release since dissolving Grant Lee Buffalo, one of roots rock s great also-rans, Phillips relishes the relative advantages of the singer-songwriter style. He sketches characters with nuance, tosses off .
more »epigrammatic love songs, dives into painterly rural reveries, traces an obscure Southern myth while banging on a banjo, and offers bittersweet praise to friendship. His voice and melodic knack are all the continuity he needs. That voice, a grainy croon distilled from blue-eyed soul and California country cool, remains a prime attraction. If the tasteful, lissome country-folk backing of steel guitar, fiddle, piano, drums, and harmony vocals from Cindy Wasserman is a tad shy of adventurous, the sound suits the ripe, romantic, and dreamy mood of Phillips s songs. Roy Kasten
Grant-Lee Phillips had his music breakthrough with the 90’s group Grant Lee Buffalo. This came after years of forming bands in LA while also working as a roofer to pay for classes at UCLA. Eventually Phillips dropped out of college and returned to his hometown of Stockton.
Eventually returning to LA, Phillips first played solo shows as Grant Lee Buffalo before recruiting a band. The first single came in 1992 and it was enough to win a recording contract for the first album “Fuzzy”. Instantly a critical success, REM’s Michael Stipe called the album “the best album of the year hands down”.