Review:'Phillips, Shawn' 'Outrageous Live Armadillo World Headquarters 1976'
- Label: 'Think Like A Key Music'
- Genre: 'Folk'
- Release Date: '15.11.24.'- Catalogue No: 'TLAK1175'
Our Rating:
I feel I ought to start this review by apologizing to Shawn Phillips for my snot nosed over opinionated teenage self, back in about 1981 when I year zeroed my record collection, of anything that I couldn't connect to David Bowie, the one Shawn Phillips album that I think my dad was given by someone in the mid 70's, it wasn't to any of our taste at the time, just had to go.
So being sent this has allowed me to revisit that decision, trying to figure out which of his albums it was. Shawn is best known for co-writing Season Of The Witch with Donovan, alongside working with Bernie Taupin, Paul Buckminster, Leland Sklar, Tucker Zimmerman, The Headhunters, Traffic and being a backing vocalist for the Beatles among other achievements.
This album was recorded over two nights at The Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas in January 1976 as a duo with J. Peter Robinson playing Piano and whatever else he used alongside Shawn's 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars and percussive toys. This album was made possible when the original 1" multitrack tapes surfaced with two hours of musical magic on them.
This album opens with We featuring Shawn playing some carefree strummed acoustic guitar with J, Peter Robinson tinkling in the background, this song of peace and love makes clear that We should all love each other more, he takes flight, I can see my younger self shaking my head at such hippy nonsense, wondering why we ever owned a Shawn Phillips album, now my older self is really enjoying it and loving the vibe.
After a short intro he plays an oldie Manhole Covered Wagon that has a Phil Ochs style protest song feel, which would certainly have been what might have attracted my dad to Shawn's music in the mid 70's. This road worn tale is interesting Shawn takes a falsetto flight.
Looking At The Angel is a song of wonder and joy that seems to have some Simon & Garfunkel style piano fills, while Shawn weaves a deep tale.
All Our Love is slow and pensive, with super sparse guitar. Coming Down Soft And Easy from the Collaborations album is a cool come down song for someone whose trying to go further. Dealing with sexual repression and being friends with Richard and all his false beliefs, this almost feels like a therapy session set to music.
Withered Roses has a Spanish guitar opening, over slow deliberate piano chords. Before the dark twisted take unfurls that will need multiple listens to really get to the heart of, all the better to wonder at intricate guitar and piano interplay.
L'Ballade is greeted by the fans like a hit, it is a forlorn slow ballad, intricate downbeat and thoughtful, towards the end the deep bass vocals almost sound like Tuvan throat singing.
Today is about moving back to the States, you search for a new home in an un-familiar place they take us on a musical journey with semi classical tangents seeking a new dawn free from tragedy in moments of lucidity.
Intro Solo is a 9 minute flexing of the musical muscles, piano fills, synth pillows, classical rondo a la tone poem, mellifluous florid runs, leading into the slow sombre As All Is Played each note carefully chosen, words curling round your brain while the pain is dug into, soul searching, incredibly moving in ways my younger self would never have had patience for, this is very much for more mature listeners, a total treasure.
Rumpelstiltskin's Resolve slowly evolves, guitar figure revolves, Striding piano solves central dilemma, what certainty is there that your love is really real.
Improvisation is out there, playing about with the synths piano and guitar and odd tricks this builds in interesting ways. Believe In Life builds out of the improvisations a plaintive take on why you should believe in having a full life, commune with nature go on flights of fancy.
The second Improvisation has scale running guitar, odd percussion noises, piano extrusions mining deep furrows, slowly becoming the Ballad Of Casey Deiss a sombre dark tale with delicate piano runs punctuating the episodes, shimmering in the darkness.
Moonshine has them having fun with the percussive bits over the intro with the guitar running rings around the piano line and lone tonal strings. He's looking for yellow flowers as he sits under the moonshine rather than making the moonshine. He lays back and wonders at everything he can see in the sky, all sorts of issues come into play they get more frantic then slow things back down. Before he talks of not believing in your lifestyle, they are against intermarrying and other cultural crimes the people he's fighting, he wants a more pluralist society.
The shows encore opens in a semi classical way on Woman (She Was Waiting For Her Mother At The Station in Torino And You Know I Love You Baby But Its getting Too Heavy to Laugh) that is one of the longest bracket titles in music, for this gently intoxicating tune that rumbles in places. While scatting operatically in others.
The album closes with Keep On that's the most concise straight ahead song on the album, it certainly has the most memorable chorus I almost expected the crowd to be singing along.
Find out more at https://www.thinklikeakey.com/release/466371-shawn-phillips-outrageous https://www.facebook.com/shawn.phillips.35574 http://www.shawnphillips.com/
As I couldn’t find any youtube vids for this album here is an ad for Think Like A Keys other Shawn Phillips live set.
