Music
Press
"Lyrically, Phill Saylor Wisor embodies a listless, introspective darkness, offering honest and vivid stories you just don't get in music these days." - Eugene Weekly
"'Since Jimmy Died' is fractured and flawed.....and for those same reasons it is also hauntingly gorgeous, melding Appalachian roots with intimate, Beat poet-esque lyrical ruminations." - Seven Days (Burlington, VT)
"Stripmall Ballads prides himself on pouring his heart into each and every performance, as though it was a desperate last chance to tell a story that must be heard." - The Anniston Star
"KIND OF PUNK BLUEGRASS, WITH HIS DELIVERY CRISSCROSSING BOUNDARIES BETWEEN GUTHRIE-ESQUE FOLKSINGING, BEATNIK POETRY AND COUNTRY HELLFIRE PREACHING AS HE RANGERS ACROSS SUBJECT MATTER AS DIVERSE AS 9/11 FALLOUT, SCHOOLCHILD PREJUDICE AND MONSTROUSLY BLEAK DEPRESSIONS." - Vue Weekly
Discography
HOOKED - To Be Released(concept EP featuring Jolie Holland and Sam Parton)
"BALLADS, STRIPMALL" 2009
SINCE JIMMY DIED - 2008
13 SONGS - 2007
Photos
Bio
While compared by some reviewers to Woody Guthrie, Kurt Cobain and A.P.Carter, Stripmall Ballads has developed a style entirely his own: poetic, dark, energetic, possessed, and reluctantly romantic. An obvious devote student of the US roots musical traditions, he fuses virtuosic historical convention with contemporary lyricism. Not afraid of musical experimentation or the power of words, his prolific performances and recordings have earned him a reputation for being somewhere in between "a fire-and-brimstone preacher and a beat poet."
Phill Saylor's ability to take a crowd from stomping their feet to quiet reflection and back again is the result of nearly a decade of non-stop touring and performances across North America, from his early days playing shows to hobos in homeless camps to recent collaborations with some of new-folks most talented performers. With a new album, "Hooked", slated for release in 2009, Stripmall Ballads continues to evolve and surprise.
After five years fronting the old-time revival duo, The Shiftless Rounders, Phill created Stripmall Ballads as a vehicle to focus on his original compositions and contextual performances. For the last year Stripmall Ballads has toured aggressively promoting his latest album, "Since Jimmy Died."
Links
