Shawn Phillips

I wrote about Shawn Phillips a few years ago in Paste Magazine. He was my musical hero in high school, one of those great but largely unknown musicians who quietly assembled a magnificent body of work that almost nobody heard. Naturally, he was the perfect find for musical snobs, of which I proudly claim my membership.

I was thrilled when my Paste article eventually ended up on his website.

Shawn wrote very good songs, but he usually saved his best trick for the end of those songs. That trick involved an impossibly gorgeous falsetto that kept soaring up and up, and then up some more just when you thought he couldn't possibly go any higher.

He does it on this song, too. It's not much of a video (although it gives you plenty of time to contemplate that amazing hair; I'm still envious). And it's long, but it's worth it. And listen for that trick.