Album of the Day — June 18
Sam Phillips — The Indescribable Wow
18.June.2020
Sam Phillips
The Indescribable Wow
1988
As Leslie Phillips, she was a contemporary Christian recording artist.
As Sam Phillips, she would become a secular recording artist.
While her Christian music label, Myrrh Records, marketed her as “the Christian Cyndi Lauper”(which makes me curious to hear a Christian adaptation of “She-Bop”) her secular label for The Indescribable Wow, did not attempt such a derisory analogy.
Phillips last album for Myrrh was appropriately named The Turning and partnered her with producer T Bone Burnett.
Deciding to go into secular music, she dropped the name Leslie & took the stage name of Sam Phillips and signed a recording contract with Virgin Records.
In 1988, she teamed up with producer T Bone Burnett to record her debut Sam Phillips album, The Indescribable Wow. A charming and delightful sounding album that has some dark undertones to it.
The first track, “I Don’t Want to Fall in Love” provides a solid argument for why Phillips left the Christian music scene. It’s not that the lyrics are risque’ … they’re just mature:
