Shawn Phillips

From Texas to London

Shawn Phillips was born on February 3, 1943 in Fort Worth, Texas, an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, including 12-string, sings and plays sitar. Encyclopedia.com says he started guitar at seven and formed a band, Straight Jacket, with Delbert McClinton in high school. He moved to England in 1963, released his first single, "The New Frankie and Johnny Song", in 1964, and was signed by the producer Denis Preston. His first albums were I'm a Loner (1965) and Shawn (1966).

In 1965 to 1967 he played on Donovan sessions, 12-string on Fairytale and sitar on Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, and is credited as writer of "The Little Tin Soldier". He says he co-authored "Season of the Witch", which Wikipedia marks as needing a citation, and Donovan has since acknowledged writing the music. He moved to Italy on July 7, 1967 and, in his telling, stayed until 1980, when he left for Los Angeles.

The A&M years

Songs written in Europe were taken to England, where he recorded with Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood of Traffic and with Caleb Quaye. Encyclopedia.com dates the sessions to 1968; Wikipedia says 1969 to 1970. Three albums' worth were recorded and no label would release them, and after about two years the A&M producer Jonathon Weston edited the triple album into one, Contribution (1970). A&M released only Phillips's own songs, and Wikipedia adds sponsorship by Dick James.

His A&M albums were Contribution, Second Contribution (1970 by Wikipedia, 1971 by Encyclopedia.com), Collaboration (1971), Faces (1972, 57 in the US), Bright White (1973, 72), Furthermore (1974, 50) and Do You Wonder, and four of them charted on Billboard. Two singles reached the Hot 100 in 1973, "Lost Horizon" among them. Transcendence (1978, RCA) was produced and arranged by Michael Kamen. Bill Graham called him the best kept secret in the music business, and AllMusic's Bruce Eder praised his boundless, nearly peerless creativity and virtuosity.

He played the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970, toured South Africa from 1994 and moved to Port Elizabeth in 2003; in 2011 he joined Donovan at the Royal Albert Hall with Jimmy Page as a guest. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 2016. Setlist.fm lists about 365 setlists, the latest in San Antonio on November 22, 2025. Archive releases include At the BBC (2009) and Live in the Seventies (2022), drawn from 51 concert recordings. A documentary, Stargazer: Shawn Phillips, directed by Alex Wroten, is listed as in production.