Singer-songwriter Sam Phillips has never been one to crank out albums as if they're Louis L'Amour novels. But the gap between 1991's Cruel Inventions and the new Martinis and Bikinis was largely due to major upheaval at her label, Virgin Records, after it was sold.
Fortunately, Phillips was able to wait out the changes in management and has found the new regime more interested in her work than the old one.
"A weird thing I've learned about the record business is, you never have to change labels because if you stay in one place long enough, they all come through the doors eventually," Phillips said in a phone interview. "Once again, Virgin has completely changed. There are a great bunch of people there who really care about music. They're young, they have a lot of enthusiasm, and I'm very, very happy with how they're treating my record. It's really strange - but I'm not asking questions; I'm just enjoying it!"
Phillips, a former gospel singer, has been with Virgin since 1988 when she debuted on the label with The Indescribable Wow. The album wasn't a commercial success although it gained critical accolades and some savvy record stations recognized the appeal of her striking, bittersweet mezzo-soprano and strong melodic sense.
Martinis and Bikinis seems destined for a wider audience. It charted the week it was released - a first for her, Phillips said. And the album has been getting play on the new Adult Album Alternative, or Triple-A, format, which features such artists as John Hiatt, Bonnie Raitt and the Gin Blossoms.
"I couldn't ask for more at this point," Phillips said. "It's been fun. I've been on a promo tour. They had us playing really strange places like the Cleveland Zoo. It was really odd - I was in the primate house with the monkeys and the cats. I got to go backstage afterward and feed a 450-pound gorilla strawberries. That was quite a thrill."
Phillips' career should get a boost as she tours with Counting Crows, the current 500-pound gorilla of up-and-coming rock groups. The band's blockbuster debut, like all Phillips' albums, was produced by her husband, T-Bone Burnett. Phillips will open the Crows' show at the Edge in Orlando Monday.
Phillips said Martinis and Bikinis was made more quickly than her last album - with fewer overdubs. The impressive roster of musicians includes her regular rhythm section, drummer Mickey Curry and bassist Jerry Scheff, along with Peter Buck of R.E.M., Marc Ribot, Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers, Marvin Etzioni (formerly of Lone Justice) and Colin Moulding of XTC. Phillips said Burnett suggested some of the musicians while others, including Moulding, were people she had been wanting to work with.
"I've been a fan of XTC, and I love his (Moulding's) bass playing," she said. "I really wanted to work with him to see what he'd do with some of these songs."
Phillips said a few of the songs she had written simply "wilted" as soon as the musicians played them in the studio, and she discarded them. But when she was merely stuck for arranging ideas, Burnett knew what to do.
"He's very good at throwing a wrench into the works, doing something completely out of character that really works," she said.
All 13 of the songs are remarkable for their lyrics - as well as unusual but catchy melodies and varied, sometimes surprising arrangements. Phillips' words are often oblique but never opaque. Although many images recur, the effect is of elegant reinforcement, not repetition. Phillips said she noticed when she was writing that she was re-using some of her own imagery but didn't fight it.
"That was what was coming out, so I just let it. There were some (similar) titles - Same Changes, Same Rain, Fighting With Fire, Circle of Fire," she said. "I just let them be that way. I figured they were there for a reason."
Phillips said that with this batch of songs, the melody usually came to her first and she had to wait for the lyrics. Sometimes, she likes to write lyrics that go against the mood of the melody, a juxtaposition she has noticed in a lot of John Lennon's writing. But for these songs, she tried to let the words further interpret the feeling of the melody.
"It really took a little bit of time to figure out what the melodies were saying - at least that's what I attempted to do," she said.
Phillips' lyrics tend to require more attention and thought from the listener than is usual in pop or rock, and they are sometimes misinterpreted.
"Sometimes, there are good misinterpretations. Sometimes, people interpret them in a way that makes me feel like I'm smarter, which is always nice," she said. "There was one radio station that started playing a song called 'Holding On to the Earth' as an Earth Day song. It's not about taking care of the Earth."
Rather, Phillips explained, the song is about people fearing change so much that they become materialistic and cling to possessions.
"It's talking about holding on to the Earth for fear that we can't navigate the way through the changes," she said. Phillips gets more inspiration from reading than from listening to music, she said. The song "Strawberry Road," for instance, was sparked by a collection of Iroquois Indian stories.
"The Iroquois Indians say the road to heaven is paved with strawberries, and I wanted to write a song about that longing that we all have, a spiritual longing, and thought 'Strawberry Road' was a good title - such a pretty image."
Phillips has been reading a lot of South and Central American authors in translation, including Eduardo Galliano. However, when she goes out on the road, her attention span shortens.
"Pretty soon into a tour, I can't read anything but magazines," she said. "I start off with the best intentions, fill my bags with books that are way too heavy and then never read them."
Phillips has gone out solo, opening for Elvis Costello and Bruce Cockburn, and found the experience taught her a lot about both her own songs and connecting with an audience. This record, however, calls for a full band. The lineup will vary as Phillips draws from a pool of musicians that includes Burnett and Jerry Scheff.
"I don't have the heart to drag any one person - except the drummer, Josh Bell - on the road for a year or two years," Phillips said.
While waiting to make Martinis and Bikinis, Phillips and Burnett wrote country songs and made demos together. She hopes to do something with that project in the future although Burnett is working on his own record at the moment. Thinking ahead to her own next album, Phillips said working with Burnett for so long has helped them refine what she's doing. However, she also enjoyed working with Colin Moulding, who co-produced the song "Baby I Can't Please You." She would like to work with him again.
"It was really fun to have another person in there that we respected musically, to give some new ideas," Phillips said. "Who knows, in the future, he (Burnett) may get so sick of me, he'll put an ad in the paper for a new producer!"