Martinis & Bikinis (Remastered) Sam Phillips

• 1 Love And Kisses 00:58
• 2 Signposts 02:20
• 3 Same Rain 04:11
• 4 Baby I Can't Please You 03:51
• 5 Circle Of Fire 03:12
• 6 Strawberry Road 04:01
• 7 When I Fall 05:07
• 8 Same Changes 04:44
• 9 Black Sky 04:02
• 10 Fighting With Fire 02:53
• 11 I Need Love 03:39
• 12 Wheel Of The Broken Voice 04:00
• 13 Gimme Some Truth 03:27
• Total Runtime 46:25

Info for Martinis & Bikinis (Remastered)

While Sam Phillips’ previous releases were regarded as pure pop treasures, everything seemed to completely fall into place for her fourth—1994’s Martinis & Bikinis. With then husband, T Bone Burnett once again behind the boards, Phillips delivered a masterpiece. How could she not with amazing songs and a brilliant cast of musicians, including XTC’s Colin Moulding, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Marvin Etzioni and Don Heffington from Lone Justice, Heartbreaker Benmont Tench, Marc Ribot, Mickey Curry, and arrangements from some guy named Van Dyke Parks!

"With Martinis and Bikinis, Sam Phillips' music turns decidedly Beatlesque: edgier and more psychedelic than her previous work, songs like "Strawberry Road" and "Same Rain" springboard from John Lennon-inspired origins, while "Same Changes" brazenly borrows from "If I Needed Someone" -- Van Dyke Parks' string arrangement for the stunning "Baby, I Can't Please You" even recalls "Tomorrow Never Knows." (To punctuate matters, the album closes with a cover of Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth.") The difference between Phillips and the vast majority of her pop-revisionist contemporaries, however, is that she never coasts on the fumes of her influences, but turns them on their head and gives them new life -- regardless of the approach, her impassioned, spiritually charged songs remain the product of a singular vision." (Jason Ankeny, AMG)

Sam Phillips
T Bone Burnett
Mickey Curry
David Mansfield
Jerry Scheff

Produced by T Bone Burnett

Digitally remastered

Sam Phillips
I am a songwriter, musician and singer from Los Angeles California. When I began making albums for the Virgin America label in 1988, I started going by my nickname Sam in honor of the Great Producer who discovered and recorded Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash.

T Bone Burnett produced seven of my albums for Virgin and Nonesuch Records. I produced my last three albums Don’t Do Anything, Push Any Button and now World On Sticks.

In 2000, Amy Sherman-Palladino asked me to compose and perform the music for her TV show Gilmore Girls, which I did for seven seasons, and I have reprised that role for the new Gilmore Girls (A Year In The Life) revival for Netflix. In 2017 Amy asked me to contribute some music to her new show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, for Amazon.

The band on World on Sticks is Jay Bellerose (drums), Jennifer Condos (bass), and Eric Gorfain (multi-instrumentalist/arranger), joined by special guests Jon Brion (bass/guitar), Chris Bruce (guitar) and The Section Quartet (strings); the recordings swing from broken modern sounds to dreamy, cinematic music.

As I wrote these songs I wanted to look at our lost connections…with nature, with mystery, with other humans and parts of ourselves. Watching a tree suffer through the California drought last summer made me feel for him. I wondered if it was painful or difficult for him to sprout leaves in the spring after such a dry year. I spent a few minutes with him every day. As I was standing in front of him, the words ‘Walking Tree’ popped into my head. I imagined this was his name for me…a name that reached out with empathy for my conflicting desires to be both rooted and free. Maybe he felt for me because of my short life and fast-spinning mind…not taking enough time to realize that I’m here to be a loving part of all this.

This album contains no booklet.