'BLUES IN BRITAIN' - (Live performance review)

 

29th April 2008 .... Most Tuesday evenings find Steve Phillips and his band The Rough Diamonds in residence at The Grosvenor. This particular get together was given added spice by the guest appearance of Kevin Brown whose contributions on lap slide throughout were a constant delight. The atmosphere is always friendly and relaxed, a feeling that was reinforced when Jack Gibson's gentle shuffle drums and Steve's lazy vocals eased us into Mark Knopfler's ''Mississippi Blues'' that opened up proceedings. Things then picked up on ''Run Me Down'', the emphasis constantly shifting between Phil Moores honky tonk keyboard, Steve's sparkling picking and Kevin's subtle slide, double bassist Mick Wheeler supplying excellent back-up to his leaders gruff tones.

 

The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was portrayed in the lyrics of Steve's own ''Bad Water Rising'' that followed, with the band, particularly Phil's swirling organ, conjuring up the floods swift flowing current. The riparian theme continued with the Delmore Brothers' ''Deep River Blues'' before Mick convincingly brought his country and western inflections to bear when taking the vocal on Carl Perkins' ''Sweethearts A Stranger''.

Mystery Train gave ample room for each musician to strut their stuff. 

 

''Rough Diamond Swing'' provided a showcase for all the musicians to take a solo spot and Mick's frantic slap bass was a particular highlight. Steve's slurry vocal and simple but insistent guitar riff on ''I Asked For Water She Gave Me Gasoline'' was trance inducing, Kevin's eerie slide tones and Phil's organ stirring up an intoxicating swampy groove. Then it was back again to cowboy country and Mick having a wail of a time on Carl Perkins' ''Movie Magg''. ''Good Rockin Tonight'' presented us with outstanding boogie woogie piano from Phil and wholehearted vocals from both Steve and Mick.

 

The evening's superb entertainment was brought to a close with a marathon workout on ''House Rockin' Boogie'' with the band going for it big time. After a breathless finish, a garulous Irishman sitting at the next table remarked on leaving .... ''Now that wasn't just good, that was world class playing''. Needless to say, nobody contradicted him.

 

Martin Byron.

 

ROCK 'N' REEL magazine. 2007

 

'Solo' (CLARION RECORDS)

When Mark Knopfler was putting together his Notting Hillbillies a decade or so back, his first choice for guitarist was longtime friend and compatriot Steve Phillips. On the evidence here it’s not hard to see why.

Phillips is clearly a blues fanatic and his latest collection, Solo, sees him paying tribute to some of those who’ve fed his addiction since the early 60s, and the stylists who encouraged him to spend his life playing.

 

Highlights include a haunting reading of Blind Willie McTell’s ‘Statesboro Blues’ through a phenomenal partial rewrite of Billie Holiday’s ‘Don’t Explain’, given a richly brooding atmosphere, to an exhilarating twelve-string rattle through ‘Hobo Blues’. Then there’s a pulsating and spirited version of his own ‘Tampa’s Guitar Boogie’, a hypnotic version of trad number ‘All Out And Down’ – a gospel-tinged piece of early blues magic, and the closer, his own ‘Don’t Ever Change’, a gently appealing piece of National steel wrapped in a love song.

Distinctive and delightfully unpredictable.

 

Steve Caseman

 

'BLUES IN BRITAIN' 

The Blues & Beyond Festival, Gloucestershire. 2006

''The earlier artists of the evening worked exceptionally well creating an electric atmosphere ready for the headliner STEVE PHILLIPS.

Based in North Yorkshire, Phillips is well known not only as a solo acoustic performer but, of course, for his long association with the charismatic Mark Knopfler. Both Knopfler and Phillips have a life long love of acoustic blues and this concert proved that Phillips is one of our finest performers with a selection material from, among others, Willie Brown, Fred McDowell and Big Bill Broonzy, alongside his own engaging original material.

Using a resonator guitar as well as a beautifully toned twelve string instrument, Phillips performed throughout with tremendous energy and I thought his vocals were even more heartfelt than ever.

Phillips is a strong and highly respected slide player and his version of Fred McDowell's ''Write Me A Few Of Your Lines'' captured much of the original's powerful rawness. I was very impressed with his original and compelling composition ''Bad Water Rising'' commenting on the sadness of the recent hurricane in New Orleans, while his slide work on ''Tampa's Guitar Boogie'' was as good as you can get.

This was a pretty enthralling set from, without a doubt, one of our very finest blues performers bringing this very enjoyable day to a perfect close.

Bob Tilling 2006

 

BLUES IN BRITAIN 

Front cover and special interview feature 2005.

 

fROOTS (formerly Folk Roots – essential worldwide roots music mag)

STEVE PHILLIPS  - Solo - Clarion Records CL CD 002

Ex-Notting Hillbilly Steve Phillips is not as prolific as some in producing albums or in writing original material but when he does get around to releasing a new album it’s always worth listening to.

Steve seems happiest when he’s meticulously recreating, remodeling or repolishing a yesteryear musical gem. Opening with Robert Johnson’s ’Hellhound On My Trail’ Steve pristinely picks his way through other country blues by Blind Willie McTell, Willie Brown, Tampa Red and Robert Lockwood Jnr. and broadens out with versions of Billie Holiday’s ’Don’t Explain’ and Russ Columbo’s ’Prisoner Of Love’. The two original songs, ’Forever More’ and ’Don’t Ever Change’, that Steve has written for the album are both in a traditional blues vein.

His guitar playing is as immaculate as ever, teasing every last nuance from his six and twelve string acoustics as well as amplified guitars – all of which resonate with pleasing tones. He takes the same care with his breathy vocal delivery which hardly rises above a whisper but still injects all the feeling each song requires. Steve is a master of leaving space around and between the notes of his guitar and the words he’s singing. Blues with a feeling.

(January/February 2006 issue 271/272) review by Dave Peabody.

'BLUES IN BRITAIN'

STEVE PHILLIPS – Live in concert.

The Ards Guitar Festival, Northern Ireland, 8/10/05

Brave man Steve Phillips! Well if you were a guitarist would you fancy following Arty McGlynn – Ireland’s greatest and most seminal traditional guitarist – on stage after McGlynn had electrified the audience performing with his wife Nollaig O’Casey, herself an extraordinary fiddler and singer?

But of course Phillips himself is a master and in his own way a match for his predecessor on stage and from his opening number he enraptured the audience.

Variously playing six string and twelve string acoustics and a glorious steel bodied guitar, Phillips’ technical skill was formidable but more impressively he is a pleasingly unflashy musician whose aim is ever to communicate the meaning and the spirit of the songs.

A beautiful ’Mississippi Blues’ was played exquisitely and with great finesse on six string while The Delmore Brothers’ ’Deep River Blues’ was played crisply and with effortless seeming panache and ’Hobo Blues’ played on twelve string marvelously evoked the rhythm of a train.

Phillips’ vocals are less technically astounding than his guitar playing but he sings affectingly as on an intense version of Billie Holiday’s ’Don’t Explain’.

A slide version of Robert Johnson’s ’Standing At The Crossroads’, played on steel bodied guitar was spine-chilling while his own ’Will You Miss Me’, best known through his recording with The Notting Hillbillies, and here played on six string, was dark and poetic. ’Drinking Wine Spo Dee O Dee’ provided a rousing finale.

Concert review written by Trevor Hodgett for Blues In Britain – issue 48 December 2005.

'BLUES MATTERS' - UK blues magazine. (Adrian Blacklee)

STEVE PHILLIPS  - Solo - Clarion Records CL CD 002

This "Notting Hillbilly" performs completely solo on this CD and demonstrates his love and skill for "Country Blues". All 12 tracks are carefully crafted with the majority based on traditional songs, most going back to the 1930's and represent tunes by the likes of Blind Willie McDowell & Robert Johnson. 

Steve is a renowned acoustic & steel guitar player but on this CD he also demonstrates his clear & precise vocals that are faultless, especially highlighted on the Billie Holiday track "Don't Explain". 

There is not much else that can be said about Steve Phillips, he is a "rare talent" in the Country Blues field and is respected throughout the music business by both musicians and fans alike. 

Pure genius! (August 2005)

'LIVING BLUES' (USA) - The No.1 American blues journal.

STEVE PHILLIPS - Solo - Clarion Records CL CD 002

The U.K.- based singer-guitarist Steve Phillips has been touring  and recording since the late 60s, and this set of 12 titles, including four poetic originals, finds him in great form. 

On all of his previous releases he has worked with other musicians (including Mark Knopfler and  the Notting Hillbillies), but this is his first and long-awaited solo set. Phillips plays acoustic and slightly amplified guitars here, including some powerful and engaging  acoustic 12-string slide. His original Hobo Blues pays tribute to the Atlanta School of 12-string players, but this beautifully crafted song is very much his own, and his version of Robert Jr. Lockwood's 'Take A Little Walk With Me' finds his vocals at their most expressive and natural. Alongside his blues material, Phillips offers jazz titles from Billie Holiday and Russ Columbo, both including inventive chord sequences. Phillips has been widely admired in Europe for his highly skilled slide guitar work.

Maybe before long someone will bring him to the United States to hear why. (August 2005.)

 

'RED LICK RECORDS'  May 2005

''One of Britian's best blues guitarists''

''Steve Phillips is one of England's secret treasures''

 

'BLUEPRINT' magazine - Trevor Hodgett

”Steve Phillips is without a doubt one of the greatest acoustic blues guitarists Europe has ever produced and is currently one of the finest anywhere in the world’’.

 

’FOLK ROOTS’ magazine - Robert Tilling

’’Steve Phillips is most often described as one of Europe’s most impressive Blues performers, and I cannot disagree with that. I have seen him in concert many times  and it seems his stature grows with each performance and in particular his Blues voice is stronger than ever’’.

 

'BLUES IN BRITAIN' - May 2005

This months article written by the editor describes Steve as ''a national treasure''.