Jerry Phillips, Sun Records scion, set to release his debut album. Here's what to expect.
Jerry Phillips, the youngest son of Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and a pivotal force in Memphis music, is set to release his debut album, “For the Universe.”
Los Angeles-based Omnivore Recordings will put out the record on Aug. 23, both digitally and as a CD. The label announced the project on Monday, confirming Phillips’ “ten track tour-de-force ranging from full-tilt rockers to slow-burning country soul.”
“For the Universe” was recorded by noted Bluff City producer Scott Bomar of The Bo-Keys and Phillips’ daughter Halley Phillips and cut at the family’s Sam Phillips Recording studio in Memphis. The album’s first single, "Good Side, Bad Side, Side Of Crazy Too,” is available on all streaming services now.
As a member of one of Memphis iconic musical families, the 75-year-old Phillips has been part of many important cultural moments. A “child wrestler” in the 1950s, Phillips was a member of the '60s garage group The Jesters (who recorded the classic "Cadillac Man," one of the last great original Sun releases), and worked on projects for Stax as well co-producing singer-songwriter John Prine's 1979 album “Pink Cadillac,” with his brother, the late Knox Phillips. All through the years, however, Phillips was writing original songs.
MEMPHIS MUSIC HISTORY: What music came out of Memphis? A look at city's music history, from W.C. Handy to Yo Gotti
In 2022, the Phillips recording studio acquired the original Spectra Sonics console from Stax Studio B, which had captured soul classics like Rufus Thomas’ “The Funky Chicken” and much of the Isaac Hayes catalog. Phillips volunteered to be the first artist cut on the newly installed console, and he recorded several original songs backed by a band led by Memphis guitarist John Paul Keith.
“We liked the results and that was the beginning of the record,” says Bomar, Phillips Studio house producer. “Jerry’s recording method was a window into what it was probably like recording at Sun — very live, off-the-cuff, and unrehearsed. It all had a real spontaneous feel and spirit.”
“I’m a big believer in that when you get out on a limb a little bit, that’s where the real stuff comes from,” says Phillips. “I’ve got a saying: ‘When you’re in the studio, you’re not playing for the tape machine, you’re playing for the universe, the tape machine just remembers it for you.’”
Phillips notes that the album reflects the numerous influences throughout his life, including the many great Sun artists — Elvis Presley to Carl Perkins to Jerry Lee Lewis — he’d known since childhood, but hopefully offers a unique take on that musical legacy.
MEMPHIS MUSIC: Is Memphis still a music city? Why the answer will be yes for generations to come
“Some of the girls that were doing the back-up vocals on my album said, ‘You don’t sound like anybody else’ — and I guess that’s a compliment,” notes Phillips. “Because all of those philosophies I grew up around — ‘Individualism to the extreme,’ which is what my father always said, and ‘If you’re not doing anything different, you’re not doing anything at all’ — the spiritual independence that was so ingrained in me, hopefully my album reflects that.”
"For The Universe" is available for pre-order now at Omnivorerecordings.com.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Sun Records scion Jerry Phillips to release debut album: What we know
