Hello friend,
I am very pleased to announce the official release of Phillips&Driver's
debut recording "Togetherness," on the Bar/None label.
This is a record that I made with my friend Gretchen Phillips, from Austin,
Texas. It's got some of our favorite songs of yesteryear alongside a few
of our own most cherished compositions, and I can honestly say that it's
one of the most listenable recordings I've ever made. We're backed up
by a crackerjack band that includes many of your favorite instruments
(drums, bass, guitar and piano) as well as some exciting and unexpected
ones, such as lap steel guitar, trumpet, and Omnichord®.
So I suggest that you march right down to your local record seller, or
surf to your favorite web music retailer, or call some music place that
takes charge cards, and get yourself a copy. And, if you're around Austin,
Texas or New York City in the coming weeks, we hope you'll take part in
our ongoing celebration of Togetherness.
We think the world needs all it can get right now and we're excited to provide some.
Yours,
Dave Driver
ABOUT THE SONGS
Grudge ****
The Scud Mountain Boys, one of Phillips&Driver's all-time favorite
bands, wrote this sublime homage to the pathetic loser in all of us.
Joan Of Arc
The beginning of it all: Gretchen Phillips learned this gorgeous Leonard
Cohen tune, which sums up the struggle between ambition and relinquishing
control, from her father as a child. Later she taught it to Dave Driver,
and it was the first tune on which they dueted.
Day After Day
Badfinger's classic 70's radio staple has here been re-envisioned as the
ultimate anthem of platonic love.
Lesson
A Gretchen Phillips original about the end of nihilism that comes when
one truly begins to care. What could be more painful?
Secretly
Jimmie Rodgers wrote this ballad of forbidden love sometime in the 1950's.
What was the forbidden part back then? Who knows. But when David Driver
heard it on his favorite easy listening radio station, WNLC ("The
Memory Station") out of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, he felt as though
he had written it himself. Why indeed?
Could It Be Magic?
Seeing Barry Manilow perform this song solo on "The Midnight Special"
was a pivotal moment in Gretchen Phillips' adolescence. For the first
time she understood that "schlock" could have deep personal
meaning for the singer and his audience. And her career has been a testament
to this realization ever since.
Oh Starsky
The television series "Starsky & Hutch" was seminal for
David Driver. It taught him the importance of honesty in man-to-man love.
He considers Paul Michael Glaser, who portrayed detective Dave Starsky,
one of his first true loves. This song was written for him.
I Loved You Once In Silence
From the Lerner & Leowe musical Camelot, a perfect song about forbidden
love (a perhaps all-too-familiar theme). Originally sung by Gretchen Phillips'
childhood fantasy lady Julie Andrews, no less.
Ready For Love
How can one make an early 21st-century lesbo-gay 70s-soft-rock country-folk
album and not include this too-often overlooked gem of sexual longing?
One cannot. Pluswhich, Badfinger's work is represented on this album,
therefore Bad Company's must be as well.
Cast Your Fate To The Wind
Vince Guaraldi, who wrote the now-classic "Peanuts" theme, had
a huge hit with an instrumental version of this in the early 60's. When
David Driver heard a version with words by one of his favorite singers,
June Christy, he jumped at the chance to record it.