Washington Phillips (born 1880 in Texas) was a pioneering gospel performer in the 1920s. His entire musical catalogue consists of eighteen songs, recorded between 1927 and 1929. Phillips died in 1954, at the age of 74. 1880 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... State nickname: Lone Star State Other U.S. States Capital Austin Largest city Houston Governor Rick Perry Official languages None Area 696,241 km² (2nd) - Land 678,907 km² - Water 17,333 km² (2. ...
Phillips would have had to re-string and re-tune dramatically to achieve the tuning used on his recordings.
This was 85-year-old Earl Phillips, a second cousin (with a PHD in Economics), who definitely recalled a homemade instrument, and gave me some pretty descriptive clues in a phone conversation on April 16, 2003.
When Phillips "wanted to sing loud, he would raise his head and throw back his shoulders. Therefore, hed only look at the (zither) at the start, then not need to look." The instrument was definitely "made by him (WashingtonPhillips)," and a neighbor had said, it "looked like part of a piano."
For the most part, however, Phillips is virtually unknown except to a cult of rabid musicologists, who revel in the mystique of the man who emerged out of nowhere as a fully-formed artist and just as quickly disappeared.
The "real" WashingtonPhillips returned to the farming life in the fl settlement of Simsboro, content to play for neighbors and churchgoers until 1954, when, at age 74, he died of head injuries suffered from a fall down the stairs at the welfare office in nearby Teague.
That the WashingtonPhillips who was gospel's great disappearing act would take his eternal nap in an unmarked grave seems about par for this course in music history.
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