journal.nonesuch.com

Sam Phillips Performs in a "Tiny Desk Concert" for NPR

"I don't think enough people have heard the music of Sam Phillips," says Bob Boilen, host of NPR's All Songs Considered, "and now seems like a good time to change that." Boilen goes on to say:

Her songs unfold like perfect miniature pop dramas, and her new album, Don't Do Anything, is loaded with great ones. Of all her incarnations as a performer ... the current Sam Phillips is the one I find most alluring.

Boilen invited Sam to perform songs from the new record at the NPR offices as part of the new All Songs Considered "Tiny Desk Concert" series. You can watch her and violinist Eric Gorfain perform four songs in those intimate environs at npr.org.

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Click here to add Sam Phillips's CD Don't Do Anything directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no additional cost.

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists:

John Adams's opera Nixon in China receives its final two performances this weekend, tonight and Sunday, at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado, with Opera Colorado led by Marin Alsop. The production is directed by James Robinson and features choreography by Seán Curran. Tickets: operacolorado.com.

Also tonight, the latest concert in Nonesuch staffer Ronen Givony's Wordless Music series includes a performance of Adams's Shaker Loops by the group A Sunny Day in Glasgow and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, along with Ingram Marshall's Entrada. The concert will be held at the Whitney Museum on Manhattan's Upper East Side and is free. Info: wordlessmusic.org.

The piece will receive a second free New York performance this weekend: the Brooklyn Philharmonic, led by Michael Christie, will conclude a free, outdoor concert at the South Street Seaport Saturray night with selections from the piece accompanied by choreographed fireworks. Info: brooklynphilharmonic.org.

Also on Saturday, at the opposite end of the Earth, Short Ride in a Fast Machine will be included in a program by the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra at Yokohama Minato Mrai Hall in Kanagawa, Japan, with an encore presentation of the program at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on Sunday. Info: japanphil.or.jp.

Adams's Christian Zeal and Activity, which appears on the same album as Short Ride, The Chairman Dances, will be performed by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, led by Lawrence Renes, in Malmö, Sweden.

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Louis Andriessen's opera La Commedia, based on Dante's work by the same name, received its world premiere last night at the Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam as part of the Holland Festival 2008. Performances continue from Saturday through Wednesday the 18th. The production features soprano Claron McFadden as Beatrice, with Christina Zavalloni singing the music associate with Dante and Jeroen Willems with Lucifer; Synergy Vocals performas a chorus octet. Tickets: dno.nl.

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T Bone Burnett continues leading the band in the Raising Sands tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss with three stops this weekend: tonight at the Merriweather Post Pavillion in Columbia, Maryland (merriweathermusic.com); tomorrow night at the Asheville Civic Center in Asheville, North Carolina (ashevillenc.gov); and Sunday at the Bonnaroo Music Festival (bonnaroo.com)in Manchester, Tennessee, where Orchestra Baobab will also be performing.

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As mentioned earlier today, Philip Glass's music provides the score to the film Life: A Journey Through Time, featuring the nature photography of Frans Lanting, on Sunday for Day Two of the Detroit Symphony's 8 Days in June festival. Tickets: 8daysinjune.com.

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Emmylou Harris performs at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, outside of Chicago, tomorrow night, kicking off the center's Twilight Concert music series. The Chicago Sun-Times's Dave Hoekstra calls the "music legend ... a logical choice to kick off the green series," given her involvement with the Natural Resources Defense Council's efforts to promote renewable energy and halt mountaintop coal mining removal. Tickets: mortonarb.org.

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Orchestra Baobab continues its month long tour of the States with music from their recent release, Made in Dakar, tonight at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon (aladdin-theater.com), then heads east for the Bonnaroo Music Festival (bonnaroo.com) on Sunday.

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Sam Phillips closes out her tour of free Borders stores performances and signings of her new CD Don't Do Anything tomorrow evening, 7 PM, in San Francico at the city's Union Square store. Her next scheduled performance is on June 26 at the newly opened Largo at the Coronet Theater in Los Angeles. Tickets: largo-la.com.

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Steve Reich's 1985 work for clarinets New York Counterpoint will be performed by the Ensemble für Neue Musik Basel tonight at the Musikakademie Großer Saal in Basel, Switzerland (ensemble.ch).

His Sextet serves as the score to choreographer Douglas Lee's Leviathan, which receives its final performance of the season tonight at the Stuttgart Ballet (staatstheater.stuttgart.de).

Chris Thile Nominated for 2008 Americana Award: Instrumentalist of the Year

Congratulations to Punch Brothers' Chris Thile has been nominated for a 2008 Americana Award by the Americana Music Association. Chris joins an esteemed group of nominees in the Instrumentalist of the Year category, which also includes Sam Bush, Gurf Morlix, and Buddy Miller, who appears on Emmylou Harris's new album, All I Intended to Be.

Nominated for Album of the Year is the Robert Plant / Alison Krauss collaboration Raising Sand, helmed by producer T Bone Burnett and featuring "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," which Sam Phillips wrote and performs on her own recent Nonesuch release, Don't Do Anything.

The awards ceremony will be held at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, on September 18, and will be the signature event of the AMA's ninth annual Americana Music Festival and Conference. For information on the awards and tickets to the festival, visit americanamusic.org.

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Click here to add Punch Brothers' Punch CD plus free album MP3s, including the bonus download "Bailey," directly to your Shopping Cart for $16.

Time Out NY: Four Stars for Sam Phillips's "Bewitching" New Album

Sam Phillips's recent Nonesuch release, Don't Do Anything, is her first self-produced album, and, writes Time Out New York's Mikael Wood in a four-star review,    

Phillips fills the role masterfully here, adorning her romantic confessions with a painter's palette of avant-folk details: Gypsy-troupe strings, creep-show organ and, on "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," underwater marching-band grooves. Bewitching.

Read the full review at timeout.com/newyork.

Sam brought songs from the new album to three East Coast Borders in-store performances this past weekend, beginning with a Friday evening set at the New York City store at the Time Warner Center, Columbus Circle, then heading down to Philadelphia and Washington, DC, area stores on Saturday and Sunday. Her next stop is in Seattle this Wednesday, at the Redmond Town Center.

Here are a couple of photos from the New York performance, for which she was accompanied on Stroh violin and electric guitar by Eric Gorfain (who appears on the new album and joins Sam for the whole tour) and, on accordion, Ted Reichman:

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Click here to add Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything CD directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no additional cost.

Nonesuch Events This Weekend

Here is our weekly list of just some of the many events going on across the globe this weekend featuring Nonesuch artists:

John Adams's opera Nixon in China, the first work to be dubbed a "CNN opera" upon its debut in 1987, closes the Denver Opera's season with four performances beginning Saturday night and continuing through Sunday, June 15. The production is directed by James Robinson and conducted by Marin Alsop, both of whom were involved in the staging's premiere at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Choreography is by Seán Curran, who is featured in a Denver Post profile at denverpost.com. Free pre-performance lectures begin one hour prior to curtain time and are open to all ticket holders. The Rocky Mountain News offers a preview of the event, including interviews with the cast. Tickets: operacoloardo.org.

Also on Saturday, Adams's Short Ride in a Fast Machine will be performed by the Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra, led by Mark Finch, at the Cathedral in Gloucester, England. Info: gloucestercathedral.org.uk.

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Laurie Anderson's performances of Homeland at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, continues for the third night in a row tonight. The Festival runs May 23 through June 8 and includes works of opera, dance, theater, and music. Information: spoletousa.org.

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T Bone Burnett continues to lead the band on the Raising Sand tour with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, which stops at the CMAC in Canandaigua, New York, outside of Rochester (cmacevents.com), Saturday night, and at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Sunday night (theborgata.com).

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Bill Frisell plays close to home in a number of shows in the Pacific Northwest over the next several days with his trio, featuring Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston. Tomorrow night, they'll be in Eugene, Oregon, to perform at the Jaqua Concert Hall at The Shedd (theshedd.org), and Sunday night they'll be in Portland to play at the Aladdin Theater (aladdin-theater.com). They'll continue in the Northwest early next week with two shows at the Tractor Tavern, Monday and Tuesday (tractortavern.ypguides.net).

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Emmylou Harris takes the songs of her forthcoming Nonesuch release, All I Intended to Be, on the road this weekend, performing tonight at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, with John Prine (redrocksonline.com). On Sunday, she'll head to Lawrence, Kansas, to play the Revival Tent at the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival (wakarusa.com).

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k.d. lang continues to bring the songs of Watershed across Canada with a show at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium Sunday night in Edmonton. Information: jubileeauditorium.com.

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Brad Mehldau brings his Trio, drummer Jeff Ballard and bassist Larry Grenadier, to California this weekend, with a performance at at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, tonight for SFJAZZ's spring season (sfjazz.org), and at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles Sunday (theelrey.com).

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Orchestra Baobab plays the second US show of its Made in Dakar tour at Yoshi's in Oakland, California, Saturday night, after having kicked off the tour in Yoshi's San Francisco venue last night. Tickets: yoshis.com.

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Nicholas Payton and his Quintet continue their five-night residency at New York's Jazz Standard through the weekend, with 7:30 and 9:30 PM sets each night, as well as additional late-night sets tonight and tomorrow night at 11:30 PM. Tickets: jazzstandard.net.

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Sam Phillips continues her Don't Do Anything tour of Borders stores with a free performance and signing at the New York City store at Columbus Circle, in the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park. The show begins tonight at 7 PM. Also this weekend are stops at the Bryn Mawr / Philadelphia store at the Rosemont Shopping Center Saturday, at 2 PM, and the Tyson's Corner store, just outside Washington, DC, on Sunday at 3 PM. For more dates, click here.

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Steve Reich's music remains the centerpiece of the Ojai Music Festival, which continues this weekend in Ojai, California, after last night's all-Reich opening concert. Today's events include a full-day symposium, featuring conversations with The New Yorker's Alex Ross this morning and conductor David Robertson this afternoon, and culminating in a conversation with the composer at 2:15 PM PST. On Sunday morning at 11 AM, Reich will join the Nexus and So Percussion ensembles and percussionist Wade Culbreath in a performance of his seminal 1973 piece Drumming. Closing the festival, at 5:30 PM on Sunday, the Ojai Festival Orchestra, led by Robertson, and Dawn Upshaw perform Reich's Tehillim.

Dawn, the Festival's featured musician, also performs in a recital tomorrow morning with pianist Gil Kalish. The two perform works by Foster, Seeger, Ives, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Schumann, Wolf, Berg, Weill, and Bolcom. Also in the aforementioned closing concert Sunday night, she'll join mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey in a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.

For the complete Ojai Music Festival schedule, visit ojaifestival.org.

Elsewhere this weekend, Düsseldorf Percussion performs Reich's Sextet tonight at the Clara Schumann Musikschule, in Düsseldorf, Germany; and the Conservatorio de las Rosas's Conservatory Ensemble performs Drumming in Sala Ninos Cantores, Morelia, Michoacan, in Mexico, Saturday night.

Paste: Sam Phillips "Succeeds Beautifully" on New Album with "Best Possible Version of Herself"

Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything, released earlier this week, is the singer-songwriter's third album for Nonesuch Records and the latest in a long and varied career, for which, Paste magazine's Kurt B. Reighly says, Sam's "stellar track record merits kudos. Few career artists of such high standards have fared as well."

In his review of Don't Do Anything, Reighly says the new album "rivals the best of her catalog," indeed a high standard to meet. While those albums had been helmed by producer T Bone Burnett, the new work is Sam's first self-produced effort, and "the difference," finds Reighly, "is subtle yet clearly discernible. This is Sam Phillips unvarnished."

The Paste review points to Sam's signing with Nonesuch and her label debut, Fan Dance, in 2001, as the moment when, musically, "her world took on burnished hues of copper and honey, replacing baroque flourishes with quieter, acoustic timbres." And now, with her third Nonesuch release, "she progresses further still, concentrating on texture," writing, producing, performing tunes "arranged like shoebox dioramas," imbued with "tiny details ... as vital to the fabric of the album as its songs and their singer."

Reighly concludes with these words about Sam: "On Don't Do Anything, she succeeds beautifully by doing nothing more than being the best possible version of herself."

To read the complete review, visit pastemagazine.com.

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Click here to add Sam Phillips's CD Don't Do Anything directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no additional cost.

Click here to add 2001's Fan Dance directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $15 and download the album MP3s at no additional cost.

NY Magazine Recommends Sam Phillips New Album

Sam Phillips's tour of Borders stores with songs from her new album, Don't Do Anything, began last evening at the Borders Hollywood and continues this Friday in New York City. New York magazine's Vulture Agenda recommends the new album, calling it "sublimely resigned" and writing:

Phillips here offers a glimpse of life on the wiser side of the romantic-existentialist divide ... While the latest songs are as raggedly tuneful as ever, there's a new, rigorous economy to them that, considering their deeply confessional nature, is to be admired.

To read the recommendation, visit nymag.com.

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PopMatters gives Don't Do Anything an 8 of 10, with reviewer Steve Horowitz dubbing it "song noir, whose low-key, chiaroscuro-style shadings of musical effects heighten the psychological reality." He points to Sam's choice of instrumentation for its ability to "turn familiar notes and structures into carnivalesque figures."

Horowitz appreciates Sam's realization "that music, like life, is found in the flaws." He concludes:

She creates sonic sandcastles with strings and percussion and croons above it, but her inner eye is open and sees the waves crashing to the shore. She welcomes the pounding surf. Its ebb and flow match the sound of a beating heart. And everything living is doomed to age, decay and die. That only makes everything more precious. Phillips might preach Don't Do Anything, but the constant flux of her music reveals that she knows better.

To read the full review, visit popmatters.com.

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Click here to add Sam Phillips's CD Don't Do Anything directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no additional cost.

Boston Globe: Sam Phillips Continues to Make "Serious Pop Music for Grown-Ups" with Her "Splendid New Effort"

Today marks both the release of Sam Phillips's latest Nonesuch album, Don't Do Anything, and the start of her tour of Borders stores on the east and west coasts celebrating the release. The free in-store concerts and CD signings get underway this evening at the Borders Hollywood store at 1501 Vine Street at 7 PM PT and next hit New York City's Columbus Circle store in the Time Warner Center this Friday at the same time ET. Sam will be accompanied by violinist Eric Gorfain in these 30-40 minute sets. For complete tour information, click here.

On this release day, the Boston Globe's Joan Anderman writes: "Anyone who rues the scarcity of smart, serious pop music for grown-ups should snap up the entire Sam Phillips catalog." In particular, she urges readers:

[D]on't miss Phillips's splendid new effort, Don't Do Anything, a collection that dances in her signature mystery space between darkness and light with strange grace, emotional candor, and winsome hooks.

Sam's two previous Nonesuch releases, Fan Dance and A Boot and a Shoe were produced by T Bone Burnett; with the new album, "the artist herself has taken over at the helm," writes Anderman, "and she has learned well."

On the songs of Don't Do Anything, Anderman concludes, Sam is able to showcase both her "love affair with Beatles-esque pop" and "the earthy chanteuse familiar from Phillips's recent records."

To read the review, visit boston.com.

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Paste's Josh Jackson, who interviews Sam today for an upcoming article, gives a taste of what's to come in the magazine's blog: "Her new record, Don't Do Anything, is out today, and it's fantastic." For more, visit pastemagazine.com.

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Dallas/Ft. Worth radio station WFAA, in its review of the new album, praises Sam as "the anti-Mariah and then some," with critic Jon M. Gilbertson writing: "When the American Idol principle of overwrought singing appears dominant, the understatement of Sam Phillips is not merely a welcome alternative---it's a kind of resistance."

Gilbertson point to just some of the highlights on the album that reflect its overall appeal:

Even at her most Elvis Costello-like oblique and clever, as in the hotly muted rock of "My Career in Chemistry," Ms. Phillips lets her heart smolder. Affectionate in the foursquare title track, graceful in the lightly baroque "Flowers Up" and determined in the folky stomp of "Can't Come Down," she paints shades of gray that are more kaleidoscopic than the full-color palettes of contemporary hit makers.

Read the review at wfaa.com.

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Click here to add Sam Phillips's CD Don't Do Anything directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no additional cost.

Sam Phillips Shows Her "Prowess As An Artist of True Distinction" on New Album (Beliefnet.com)

Sam Phillips's new album, Don't Do Anything, is due out on Tuesday, which she'll celebrate by kicking off a two-week tour of in-store performances at Borders from coast to coast, starting with her hometown store in Los Angeles. For tour information, click here.

Leading to the album's release, Rolling Stone picks "Little Plastic Life" as a standout track off the new record, including the song in its "Single Minded" list, along with tunes by Usher, Cindi Lauper, and Al Green. "The magnificent Sam Phillips returns with a song that demonstrates her knack for blending curious vocals with a big parched strum," writes Rolling Stone's J. Edward Keyes. "To put it another way: she was Feist before there was Feist ..." Read more at rollingstone.com. You can listen to the tune, which KCRW recently named a "Top Tune," here.

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Beliefnet has published a paean of sorts to Sam from longtime fan Kris Rasmussen, a contributor to the site's pop culture blog and a feature writer for Relevant magazine. "My love of Sam Phillips's music is unabashedly deep and goes back many years," Rasmussen admits. She writes that she has enjoyed Sam's "distinctive voice" since childhood, in the 1980s, and through the various phases of the singer-songwriter's career.

Reviewing the forthcoming album, Rasmussen asserts: "This underrated singer's unique vocal stylings are at their finest here, and the musical arrangements are masterful." She lauds Sam's "prowess as an artist of true distinction," one who "still has the courage to encapsulate her emotions and experiences in her music in a way few artists ever do."

To read the review, visit blog.beliefnet.com/idolchatter.

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WomenFolk.net, a site focusing on women in music, gives the album five stars, with reviewer Robbie McCown saying that Sam has "again made an album to become awestruck by." Referring back to Sam's two previous Nonesuch releases, A Boot and a Shoe (2004) and Fan Dance (2001), McCown sums it up this way:

Don't Do Anything builds upon the traits that made Phillips's two preceding albums so wonderful, but adds an extra layer of depth and instrumentation. Here, Phillips has effortlessly pulled the best pieces of all of her previous albums into one complete experience.

To read the review, visit womenfolk.net.

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Another avowed fan, particularly of her two Nonesuch releases, Houston Rambling's David Kennedy, writes that "musically, Don’t Do Anything is a stellar accomplishment." He concludes his review of the album this way:

Salon magazine once referred to Phillips as "the ghost of pop," and she remains a rough-cut diamond amidst a sea of insignificant, polished pop idols. This record is probably too smart, too funny and too heartfelt to change that fact. But to those for whom music---especially Phillips's music---is a treasure held near and dear, Don’t Do Anything is yet another delicate miracle from an artist who is herself no small miracle.

To read Kennedy's review, visit houstonramblings.typepad.com.

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UltimateGuitar.com includes Sam in its "Incomplete Tribute to Unsung Women in Music," describing her "pioneering impact" on the art this way:

During the past two decades, Sam Phillips has quietly crafted some of contemporary music's finest pop songs ... Without being strident, Phillips wrestles with philosophical matters having to do with faith and spirituality.

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Click here to pre-order Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything CD now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no extra charge on release day, June 3.

Sam Phillips CD Contest Under Way on "Gilmore Girls" Site

Many a fan of the TV series Gilmore Girls, which ran from 2000 to 2007 on the WB network, got to know the music of the show's composer, Sam Phillips. Sam wrote original music throughout the series' seven-season run; the show also featured songs from her Nonesuch debut, Fan Dance, and its follow-up, A Boot and Shoe. And Sam herself even joined Lorelei and Rory Gilmore in fictional Stars Hollow, Connecticut, as a troubadour of sorts.

Now, with Sam's third Nonesuch album, Don't Do Anything, set for release this Tuesday and available for pre-order now, fans of the show can enter to win a free, signed and personalized copy of the CD at GilmoreGirlsNews.com. The contest is on now and runs through June 5. For all the details, visit the site here.

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Click here to pre-order Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything CD now for only $16 and download the album MP3s, including three Nonesuch Store exclusive bonus tracks, at no extra charge on release day, June 3.

Sam Phillips on NPR's All Songs Considered

"Can't Come Down," a track from Sam Phillips's upcoming album, Don't Do Anything, is featured today on NPR's All Songs Considered.

Listen at npr.org

 

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Click here to pre-order Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything CD now for only $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge on release day, June 3.

KCRW Names New Sam Phillips Album Track Today's Top Tune

Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything hits stores in two weeks, and today, the album track "Little Plastic Life" was named Today's Top Tune by KCRW, 89.9 FM, out of Santa Monica, and kcrw.com online. Listen here:

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Click here to pre-order Sam Phillips's Don't Do Anything CD now for only $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge on release day, June 3.

NPR: "Musical Wizard" T Bone Burnett Guest DJs on "All Songs Considered"

Adding yet another hyphenated credit to his name, T Bone Burnett plays guest DJ on the latest episode of NPR's All Songs Considered. Host Bob Boilen introduces T Bone as "a musical wizard of sorts" for all his many diverse and successful musical forays, before the two discuss a range of topics, including Burnett's producing methods, a few things he learned from the late Roy Orbison, and the differences between analog and digital recording.

They also plays cuts off of T Bone's own record collection, including songs by trombonist Wilbur DeParis, Hank Williams, Charlie Parker, and Bob Dylan, as well as a track off the Burnett-produced albums Raising Sand by Robert Plant / Alison Krauss, with whom he is currently on tour; A Boot and a Shoe by Sam Phillips (whom Boilen calls "my favorite of the people you work with"); and his own new Nonesuch release, Tooth of Crime.

To listen online or download the podcast version, visit npr.org/music.

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Click here to add the Tooth of Crime CD directly to your Shopping Cart for $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

Star-Telegram: T Bone Burnett's New Album "A Tour-de-Force of Style and Substance"

Yesterday marked the release of T Bone Burnett's Nonesuch debut, Tooth of Crime, featuring songs based on work he began more than a decade ago for Sam Shepard's play of the same name, about the pitfalls of a fame-obsessed culture. The Dallas News calls it "a fittingly eclectic musical opus" from the multi-talented musician, and the nearby Fort Worth Star-Telegram, T Bone's hometown paper, gives the album four stars and sees in it a decidedly Texan influence, "pulling from the bewitching tangle of influences that indelibly mark the songs crafted by Texas artists---a little rock, a little country, a little psychedelia and a dose of anguish, just for good measure."

Writes the Star-Telegram's Preston Jones:

Throughout his solo recording career and his lauded work as a producer, Burnett has excelled at creating and sustaining moods---it's his trademark, one springing to florid life on Crime. The twisted, tense soundscapes grab hold from the unsettling opener, "Anything I Say Can and Will Be Used Against You," extending into the funereal "Dope Island," a sinister track aided greatly by frequent Burnett collaborator Sam Phillips.

Jones concludes that the new album "explodes like a fever dream but lingers on the margins of your mind. It's a tour-de-force of style and substance, reinforcing Burnett's standing as one of music's most essential talents." To read the review, visit star-telegram.com.

Further east, the Boston Globe's Jonathan Perry finds in Tooth of Crime "an atmospheric, enigmatic collection that examines fame and its fallout---isolation, disillusionment." He calls it "sumptuously spooky" and points as well to "Dope Island" as a "pungent highlight ... sung with smoke-and-velvet-voiced languor" by Phillips. Visit boston.com for more.

USA Today's Edna Gundersen sees T Bone's meditation on fame as having evolved from its origins in Shepard's play "to survey today's identity crises and cultural chaos, filtered through Burnett’s wicked humor." She also points to "Anything I Say" as a highlight and concludes: "Tooth serves up brain food, not pop candy." Read more at blogs.usatoday.com.

BlogCritics' Richard Marcus also comments on T Bone's take on celebrity but says listeners won't find any overly literal assault on that national obsession. "Burnett is far more subtle than that," writes Marcus. "The music and the lyrics of each song combine to create almost abstract impressions expressing a mood or emotion that illustrates an aspect of the theme."

Tooth of Crime, says the reviewer, "is not just an example of Burnett going places that other popular musicians would fear to tread, it's also an indication of just how much he invests of himself into a project." Even independent of the play that inspired it, "the CD stands as a work of art in its own right." He concludes:

There are not many composers of any genre who are as capable of creating music that rewards its listeners to the extent that T Bone Burnett does. Not only is he an innovative musician he is also an intelligent lyricist. On Tooth of Crime he demonstrates just how gifted he is in both areas.

To read the article, visit blogcritics.org.

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Click here to add the Tooth of Crime CD directly to your Shopping Cart for $16 and download the album MP3s at no extra charge.

Sam Phillips to Kick Off Borders In-Store Tour on Release of New Album, June 3

Sam Phillips will celebrate the release of her third Nonesuch album, Don't Do Anything, on June 3, with an in-store performance and CD signing at Borders in Hollywood, California, at 7 PM. It's the first of seven stops in a series of free, intimate shows and signings at Borders stores across the country, featuring Sam with violinist Eric Gorfain, whose Section Quartet appears on the new album and also joined Sam on her previous Nonesuch release, 2004's A Boot and a Shoe.

Don't Do Anything will be available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store starting this Tuesday, May 13. Every CD purchase comes with the free album MP3s on release date, June 3, including three bonus downloads exclusive to the Nonesuch Store.

Below are the tour dates and locations:

Tuesday, June 3, at 7 PM
Borders Hollywood
1501 Vine St.
Hollywood, CA 90028

Friday, June 6, at 7 PM
Borders Columbus Circle
10 Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019

Saturday, June 7, at 2 PM
Borders Bryn Mawr
Rosemont Shopping Center
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010

Sunday, June 8, at 3 PM
Borders Tyson's Corner
8027 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, VA 22182

Wednesday, June 11, at 7 PM
Borders Redmond
Redmond Town Center
Redmond, WA 98052

Thursday, June 12, at 7 PM
Borders Tigard
7227 SW Bridgeport Road
Tigard, OR 97224

Saturday, June 14, at 7 PM
Borders Union Square
400 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

For more information or directions to the above locations, visit borderstores.com.

Happy Birthday to Sam Phillips

Everyone at Nonesuch wishes Sam Phillips a very happy birthday today. We're all looking forward to her next Nonesuch release, due out this spring. Check back with the Nonesuch Journal for more information on the record and the forthcoming tour in the coming months.

Sister Rosetta Memorial Benefit Concert to Be Held This Friday

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has named this Friday, January 11, Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day, reports Dave Howell in the Morning Call. A concert will be held that night at the Keswick Theatre outside of Philadelphia to benefit the memorial fund established in the singer's name; she died in 1973. The concert will feature such gospel and folk legends as the Dixie Hummingbirds and Odetta.

Sam Phillips recently wrote a song paying homage to the influential musician, titled "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," which Robert Plant and Alison Krauss recorded on their 2007 hit record, Raising Sand, and which Sam performs on her forthcoming Nonesuch album, scheduled for release this spring.

To read the Morning Call article about Sister Rosetta and this Friday's benefit concert, visit mccall.com. For ticket information, visit keswicktheatre.com.

Music Box: T Bone Burnett, Sam Phillips Stand-Outs on New Plant/Krauss CD

In the latest issue of The Music Box, writer John Metzger reviews the new Robert Plant / Alison Krauss collaboration, Raising Sand. Metzger has kind words for the two singers but saves his highest praise for the album's producer, T Bone Burnett. He calls the project "Burnett's baby" and expects that fans of T Bone's work on Sam Phillips’s A Boot and a Shoe, in particular, will appreciate Burnett's efforts on the new record.

"He did a magnificent job finding the right songs and sculpting the perfect arrangements for Plant and Krauss to perform," Metzger writes. Included among the tracks is Sam Philips's "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," which, he says, "is delivered as a moody hallucination that comes in the wake of crushing heartache."

Sam's own version of the song will appear on her follow-up to A Boot and a Shoe called Don't Do Anything, due out early next year on Nonesuch. Burnett's own record is also slated for release sometime next spring.

To read the full Music Box review of Raising Sand, visit musicbox-online.com.