In the late '80s, an idealistic young Christian-music artist named Leslie Phillips became disenchanted with her industry. So she rechristened herself "Sam," a childhood nickname, and released four pop albums that established her as one of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters of her generation.
Then she decided to quit.
"I was tired, emotionally and artistically," says Phillips, 39, chatting in a conference room in her record company's midtown Manhattan offices. "I needed time to tend to my personal life."
She also was disappointed by the lack of exposure her critically lauded efforts received. "I wasn't frustrated over sales numbers, but I felt there were people who would have connected with the music but didn't find out about it," she says. Her former label would "just throw my music at pop radio. If they didn't play it, that was the end of the record."
But Phillips is ready to begin again, again. Fan Dance, which arrived in stores Tuesday, is her first album of new material since 1996's Omnipop. While it reunites Phillips with longtime producer T Bone Burnett, who also is her husband, it marks a new career chapter.
Phillips is now signed to Nonesuch Records, a progressive label whose roster includes Emmylou Harris and Audra McDonald. Senior vice president David Bither courted Phillips, a friend, after she gave him a tape of some songs she had been working on at home.
Fan Dance also represents a new sonic approach for Phillips and Burnett, who in the past crafted lush, intricately quirky landscapes for her rich melodies and spiritually searching lyrics. The new CD is more spare, with increased emphasis on Phillips' dusky voice and guitar playing. "This time, we wanted to make it more intimate," she says.
Of her long studio relationship with Burnett — a veteran boardsman whose credits include Elvis Costello, Counting Crows and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack — Phillips muses, "He's said a couple of times, 'I'm listening to my wife's voice over and over again for months — what's wrong with me? Am I nuts?' But it's been one of the most fun things we've done together. There are plenty of other fun things, needless to say, but we love working together."
During Phillips' hiatus, the couple collaborated on another production: daughter Simone, now 3 1/2 and, naturally, a budding music lover.
"We were in the car recently, and I was playing something from (Bob Dylan's) Blonde on Blonde," Phillips says. "Simone hadn't heard Bob Dylan before, and she said, 'Mommy, is that God singing?' I said, 'Simone, why would you think that?' And she said, 'Because his voice is funny, but it doesn't make me laugh.' I thought, whoa, this one's gonna be a pistol."
Adding to the new mother's hectic schedule has been a gig writing music for WB's Gilmore Girls. "Having a deadline is challenging. I feel pushed, but in a good way. They don't pressure me to write in any style; it's just, 'Can you do this in a week?' "
Phillips doubts that she'll take on another TV series, but looks forward to future challenges, whether they bring commercial success or not.
"I once laughingly told a friend, 'I'm a specter in pop music, a ghost,' " she says. "But to haunt someone like a lost dream, or a lost love — I love that idea."