Biography
c.1891, Freestone County, Texas, USA, d. 31 December 1938, Austin, Texas, USA. Phillips was unique on record in accompanying his plaintive gospel singing with the ethereal sounds of the dolceola, a zither equipped with a piano-like keyboard, of which only some 100 examples were made following its invention in 1902. Phillips recorded annually for Columbia Records from 1927-29, and his simple moral homilies were the work of a man who proclaimed his lack of education, preferring to trust in faith. His most famous song is the two-part ‘Denomination Blues’, an attack on the squabbling of black Christian sects, so titled because it uses the tune of ‘Hesitation Blues’.
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