Gretchen Phillips

Gretchen Phillips

Phillips in 2011
Background information
Born 1963 (age 53–54)
Galveston, Texas
Genres Folk, riot grrrl
Instruments Vocals, guitar
Years active 1981–present
Website gretchen-phillips.com

Gretchen Phillips (born 1963) is an American singer-songwriter known for her humorous and topical songs. Phillips has been openly gay throughout her life and her lesbianism has inspired much of her material.[1]

Background

Phillips grew up in Houston. Her parents were musicians, and she played music from childhood. After graduating from the High School for Performing and Visual Arts, she decided move to Austin in 1981 to become a professional performer and was in a band with Sara Hickman.[2]

Meat Joy, Girls in the Nose, and Two Nice Girls

Phillips was a member in three influential area bands in the mid-eighties: the punk band Meat Joy[3] (with Jamie Lee Hendrix, Melissa Cobb Unit, John Hawkes[4]-under the name John Boy Perkins, and Tim Pierre Mateer), the rock band Girls in the Nose (with Pam Barger, Kay Turner, Joanna Labow, and Darcee Douglas), and the country/disco/rock/folk/pop band Two Nice Girls (with Pam Barger, Laurie Freelove, Meg Hentges, and Kathy Korniloff). Two Nice Girls attracted national attention with Phillips' song "I Spent My Last $10 (on Birth Control and Beer)" which satirized heterosexual relationships.

Bands and solo projects since Two Nice Girls

Since the break-up of Two Nice Girls, Phillips has been part of The Gretchen Phillips Experience (with Andy Loomis, Thor Harris, John Paul Keenon, and Jo Walston), Dusty Trails (with Josephine Wiggs and Vivian Trimble), Phillips & Driver (with David Driver), Lord Douglas Phillips (with Terri Lord and Darcee Douglas), and The Gretchen Phillips Ministries (with the Experience line-up), as well as performing as a solo artist.

Awards

Two Nice Girls won a GLAAD Media Award in 1991. Phillips was inducted into the Austin Chronicle Music Poll's Hall of Fame in 2001.

Personal life

Phillips has been openly gay throughout her life and her lesbianism has inspired much of her material.[5] Phillips has generally resided in Austin, but has also lived in San Francisco and New York City.

Other

An archive collected by Phillips, including items such as reviews and news articles, video recordings of her shows, and fan mail, is part of Cornell University Library’s Human Sexuality Collection.[6]

Discography

Notes

  1. ↑ "Biography". Gretchen Phillips' website.
  2. ↑ "Gretchen Phillips Bio". gretchen-phillips.com. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
  3. ↑ McDonnell, Evelyn (April 2000). "Girls + Guitars". Out. 8 (10): 85. ISSN 1062-7928.
  4. ↑ Shulman, Dave (2007-05-10), "John Hawkes: Wandering Star", Los Angeles Weekley, retrieved 2009-12-10
  5. ↑ "Biography". Gretchen Phillips' website.
  6. ↑ "Lesbian singer's archive captures pre-internet gay life | Cornell Chronicle". News.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2017-07-20.
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