Grant-Lee Phillips

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Grant-Lee Phillips

Background information
Origin	California, USA
Genre(s)	Grunge, Rock, Cajun music, Folk, Pop
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Mandolin, Harmonica, Drums, Piano, Synthesizer
Years active	2000–present
Label(s)	Rounder Records
Associated acts	Shiva Burlesque, Grant Lee Buffalo, Robyn Hitchcock, REM
Website	www.grantleephillips.com

Grant-Lee Phillips is a talented singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his versatile voice, intense lyrical narratives and dexterity on the acoustic twelve-string guitar, a style that’s often seen him compared to greats Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

1 Background
2 Grant Lee Buffalo
3 Solo Career
4 Trivia
5 Discography
6 External links

[edit] Background

Born on September 1st 1963 in Stockton California, Phillips began playing the guitar in his early teens and persevered throughout high school. At age 19 he moved to Los Angeles where he worked tarring roofs to fund evening classes at UCLA and the possibility of forming a band at weekends. He eventually dropped out of college and linked up with an old friend from Stockton named Jeffery Clark. Together they formed Shiva Burlesque and released two lauded LPs Shiva Burlesque (Nate Starkman & Son; 1987) and Mercury Blues ( Fundamental; 1990) which due to modest promotion and a failure to fit with LA’s hair metal scene of the late 80s failed to make any commercial impact. Phillips and Clark disbanded shortly afterwards which duly meant the end of the band.

[edit] Grant Lee Buffalo

Following a handful of solo shows at clubs around Hollywood, Phillips recruited ex-Shiva members drummer Joey Peters and bassist Paul Kimble for rehearsals as Grant Lee Buffalo in mid 1991. Phillips was now writing lyrics as well as music and the trio quickly built up a local following, selling out clubs on the strength of Phillips’s intense performance. His political storytelling; delivered in a recently discovered voice, both soaring falsetto and nourishing drawl matched his aggressive acoustic guitar stomp and pouting physicality. One song, Fuzzy, a striking ballad complete with stinging electric solo was released on Bob Mould’s Singles Only Label in 1992 to huge critical acclaim and lead to Grant Lee Buffalo being signed to Slash Records. The debut LP also called Fuzzy was released a year later upon which Michael Stipe of REM decaled it ‘the finest album of the year’.

A further three Grant Lee Buffalo albums followed; Mighty Joe Moon (1994), Copperopolis (1996) and Jubilee (1998) were all quite different and highly accomplished, and though all promoted with countless electrifying concerts they never escaped cult status, eventually leading to the break up of the band in early 1999.

[edit] Solo Career

Phillips immediately signed to the Boston based indie label Rounder Records and launched a solo career; issuing the intimate Ladies Love Oracle over the internet in 2000. His first full length LP Mobilize was released to enormous critical acclaim in 2001; being praised as much for its gentleness as much as Buffalo were for their rock, it was a triumphant work displaying Phillips’s undisputed talent on many instruments; there was both dreamy pop and dark but comforting ballads. Touring followed with sets containing solo and Buffalo material in equal measure. In 2004 Virginia Creeper arrived, a more folky almost country like record noted for the complete absence of the electric guitar. In 2006 Phillips released another acoustic album; an ambitious set of cover versions Nineteeneighties, which songs by the likes of The Pixies, New Order, Robyn Hitchcock, REM and Echo and the Bunnymen were given an intimate makeover, showing that while never struggling for his own material Phillips can also make a song his own.

[edit] Trivia

In 1995 he was voted best male vocalist by Rolling Stone magazine.

Grant often collaborates with producer/musician Jon Brion as well as Rickie Lee Jones. He is currently writing with former Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris.

He can be found at the LA club Largo performing sporadically throughout the year.

He plays a recurring minor character as the town troubadour on the television series Gilmore Girls.

[edit] Discography

Year	Album cover	Album	Additional information
2000		Ladies Love Oracle
2001		Mobilize
2004		Virginia Creeper
2006		nineteeneighties

[edit] External links

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