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Stripmall Ballads live @ Bloombars - May 22, 2010
http://www.myspace.com/stripmallballads // http://www.facebook.com/StripmallBallads

Stripmall Ballads is the latest musical manifestation of Phillips Saylor. A devout student of the American roots music tradition, Phillips got schooled on the road, spending his formative years playing shows to hobos under Maryland's rail road bridges, taking up claw hammer banjo and shape note singing in New England and breathing in harmony from the pews of Alabama and Georgia's Primitive Baptist churches. His professional work to date includes touring and collaborating with some of New folk's greatest acts, including Sarah Harmer, The Be Good Tanya's, Carolyn Mark, Baby Gramps, Jolie Holland and The Lonesome Brothers, picking and singing everywhere between East Tennessee to Edmonton. Phillips speaks his experience through a varied and dynamic catalog of songs on banjo and guitar.

After five years of fronting the critically acclaimed old-time revival duo, The Shiftless Rounders (featuring Ben Sidelinger), Phillips settled in the heart of the empire- Washington, D.C. and created Stripmall Ballads as a vehicle to focus on his original compositions and contextual performances. With a firm rooting in the traditional, Stripmall Ballads branches out into today's America, fusing virtuosic historical convention with contemporary lyricism. Reviving an old form of showmanship, an engaging form of showmanship, Stripmall Ballads draws out the audience, demanding attention for a new poetry.

Phillips is currently playing and recording his solo work in Stripmall Ballads, and touring with King Wilkie all over the USA.

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