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Artist
Grant Lee Phillips
12+ albums
about
Grant-Lee Phillips (born September 1, 1963) is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his versatile voice, intense lyrical narratives and dexterity on the acoustic twelve-string guitar, a style that often sees him compared to Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. Background Born 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 a failure to fit with LA's glam metal scene of the late 1980s did not make any commercial impact. Phillips and Clark disbanded shortly afterwards which duly meant the end of the band. Grant Lee Buffalo Following a handful of solo shows at clubs around Hollywood, Phillips recruited ex-Shiva members Joey Peters (drums) and Paul Kimble (bass) 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 was delivered in a recently discovered voice: both a soaring falsetto and a no
