Jerry Phillips, For the Universe. Jerry Phillips, the son of legendary Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, grew up rubbing shoulders with icons such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash. He also has his own long musical resume. A member of the 1960s garage rock group the Jesters, he has written lots of songs, produced soul artists for the Stax label, and co-produced John Prine’s 1979 LP Pink Cadillac. Yet it is only now, at age 75, that he has gotten around to releasing an album of his own.
Better late than never. For the Universe, which his daughter Halley Phillips skillfully co-produced with Scott Bomar, is a party-ready collection of country-tinged rockers and ballads that draw on the singer’s Sun Records roots and exude personality. Featuring 10 songs written or co-written by the singer, it kicks off in high gear with “Number One Girl,” a Jerry Lee Lewis–style rocker. Among the many other highlights are the midtempo “Treat Her Like She Was Mine”; the orchestrated ballad “She Let Me Slip Right Through Her Fingers”; and “Good Side, Bad Side, Side of Crazy Too,” a weeper that would have been a good fit for the late country star George Jones.
Phillips sounds as if he’s having fun with every one of these well-hooked songs about life and love. You will, too.
Uncle Lucius, Live from EAR Studio. The genre-bending Uncle Lucius recorded this digital-only album at Austin, Texas’s EAR studio, the same place where the sextet made Like It’s the Last One Left, its 2023 comeback CD. The new release features full-bodied versions of five numbers from that earlier record, plus three well-chosen covers: the Grateful Dead’s “Bertha”; “Just to Satisfy You,” which Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson have recorded; and “Shadow People,” from Tom Petty’s chart-topping Hypnotic Eye LP. Though billed as an EP, the set clocks in at 33 minutes, as long as some standard CDs.
Lead singer Kevin Galloway, who sounds a lot like the Beau Brummels’ Sal Valentino, remains in fine form, as do his five accompanists, who artfully serve up a smorgasbord of sounds – everything from soulful rock to blues, Tex-Mex, and Muscle Shoals. The set offers another reminder of why the band’s reunion, after an eight-year lapse, represented such good news.
Colin James, Chasing the Sun. Tasty guitar work from Canadian blues-rocker Colin James permeates his latest CD, which he recorded in the home studio of his producer, fellow musician Colin Linden.
The set includes eight muscular songs that the Vancouver-based artist co-wrote, including “I’m Still Alive,” which could be mistaken for a Stevie Wonder standout, and “Devilment,” which embraces contributions from harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite. Also here are three excellent covers, among them John Hammond’s “Come to Find Out,” which also features Musselwhite; Paul Butterfield’s “In My Own Dream”; and Lucinda Williams’s forceful “Protection” (a song first heard on her 2014 LP, Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone), which finds her sharing vocal duties with James.
Wild Ponies, Dreamers. This latest country-folk album from Wild Ponies, a Tennessee-based husband-and-wife duo consisting of Doug and Telisha Williams, focuses on “what exists beyond the traditional nuclear family” and “the joys and heartbreaks they’ve experienced as part of a queer, polyamorous family.” So says a press release, but love is love and if you hadn’t read the release, you could easily hear these tunes as being about anyone’s passions and struggles.
Not all of the 11 tracks are keepers, but there are quite a few satisfying moments in the set. Among them are the acoustic “Morning Comes,” a lullaby sung by Doug; “Love You Right Now,” which features Telisha’s vocals and concerns the duo’s experience as foster parents; the upbeat “Hurt Your Heart,” which sounds reminiscent of the Everly Brothers’ late 1980s work; and the contemplative “Night Sky,” which the Williamses wrote with another Nashville-based musical duo, Chuck and Mira Costa (aka The Sea The Sea), who guest on the track.
Doug and Telisha, both of whom are more than capable singers, respectively play guitars and upright bass, and they garner support here from a handful of other musicians, including the great Fats Kapkin, who adds pedal steel, banjo, and strings. The couple wrote all the material, in some cases with collaborators such as the late folk singer/songwriter David Olney and Nashville-based Americana singer/songwriter Nora Jane Struthers.
Chillingsworth Surfingham, Mavericks. “It’s all about the music,” proclaims Chillingsworth Surfingham, which probably explains why the artist’s name is a pseudonym and the cover photo on this CD shows a masked performer. Be that as it may, Surfingham is guitarist John Ashfield, who leads the Bobbleheads, a San Francisco indie-pop group. Mavericks – his second under the Surfingham name, following an eponymous 2021 CD – finds him accompanied by percussionist Rob Jacobs (also from the Bobbleheads) as well as a bassist and another guitarist.
Like that earlier record, this mostly live-in-the-studio outing offers imaginative, high-energy instrumentals that recall acts such as Dick Dale, Duane Eddie, and the Ventures but add more twists, turns, and complexity. This is not your father’s surf music – though given how long ago this genre’s popularity waned, it would perhaps be more appropriate to say it’s not your grandfather’s surf music.
Book News
Even if you think you know all about John Lennon, you’ll likely find surprises in my book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon. Chicago Review Press, which published it in hardcover in 2016, is issuing it in paperback on October 8. Preorder a softcover copy here.
Also just out: a Chinese-language edition of my book Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters. Published in Shanghai, it mirrors the English version with one regrettable and jarring exception: to comply with Chinese government rules, censors deleted a quote from Cohen’s song “Democracy” that references “those nights in Tiananmen Square.”
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
