Stream: Grant-Lee Phillips, ‘Totally You Gunslinger’

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Grant-Lee Phillips
Grant-Lee Phillips

Despite leaving our fair city a couple of years ago, Los Angeles still claims Grant-Lee Phillips as one of our own. After some 30 years of playing in the seminal Shiva Burlesque, fronting the acclaimed Grant Lee Buffalo, followed by a solid solo career along with an acting stint on “Gilmore Girls,” it’ll take more than a couple years in Nashville for us to fully disown him. That said, Phillips’ new single, “Totally You Gunslinger” is certainly more Music City than it is Hollywood.

Cut live over four days at Nashville’s famed Sound Emporium, Phillips led his bare-bones trio, including Jerry Roe on drums and Lex Price on bass, across 12 tracks to be released as his new solo album, “Widdershins,” in February.

What is “Widdershins” you ask? Well, it’s a word of the old world, meaning to go against convention, counterclockwise, contrary to the sun’s course. Phillips’ songwriting has long been a keen harbinger of societal ills, but he felt he needed to make a conscious decision to not head directly down that path. “I made a commitment to myself not to sink into despair,” explains Phillips. “I’m tracing a longer narrative here. We’ve been through some of this before – not just our country, but the civilization as a whole.”

||| Stream: “Totally You Gunslinger”

||| Previously: Interview with Grant-Lee Phillips