Just thinkin' about Sam...

I've got two Sams in my life. One of 'em I'm married to, and of course, she occupies most of my waking thoughts. The other is Sam Phillips (pictured left), and she comes and goes with some frequency. Last year, I had the great privilege of seeing her perform in Los Angeles at Largo, probably the most intimate club of its kind anywhere. The music that Phillips makes nowadays is spooky and weird and beautiful and heartbreaking (in contrast to the Beatle-esque pop of her 90's catalog, also wonderful in its own right). It was really something to see her perform tracks from her last two records, Fan Dance and A Boot and a Shoe (released just last year). I rarely listen to one of those records without the other, and driving back out to the desert from LA, I listened to both yet again, pondering every guitar strum and lyric and wondering what on earth any of us did to deserve such perfect music.

It's also pretty smoky, romantic stuff (to my ears anyway), which naturally reminds me of that other Sam in my life.