If you have been following Phillip Phillips’s career for a while, you know he is intensely private, humble, funny, and the embodiment of determination. But fans of his music know that underneath his jovial and relaxed demeanour lies an artist of a deep and quiet sensitivity who is not afraid to explore the more painful and confounding aspects of life, ambition, love and relationships.
The weather is just starting to warm up, but Phillip Phillips has slowly been announcing dates to get summer 2024 started. And this year, Phillip is stopping at various festivals across the country.
On May 25, he will perform at the Vogue Theatre in Indianapolis as part of the historic 500 Festival, the city’s most important community event of the year. On June 6, Phillip will headline the downtown Spartanburg Concert, in Spartanburg, SC.
Phillip is also part of the lineup at the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis, MN. The event is over two days; Phillip’s show is on August 3. The Basilica Block Party celebrates the Basilica of Saint Mary, a spectacular and one of the most important landmarks in the city.
Philip will also be busy all of September, with dates in Utah, Virginia, Maryland, and New Hampshire. We will be on the lookout for more dates if he announces them!
All these shows are in support of his latest album, Drift Back, which was released in June 2023. Phillip has also embarked on a new chapter of his musical career, recording and releasing Drift Back as an independent artist for the first time.
For more information, see all upcoming show dates, and get tickets, visit Phillip’s official website.
After an exciting summer celebrating the release of his first album in five years, Phillip Phillips is finally back on the road. The tour kicked off on October 4 at the beautiful and historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC.
The 24-date tour will take Phillip and his band across the US and conclude on November 11 in New Orleans, LA. This will be the first time Phillip will be performing many of the songs from his new album, Drift Back, live.
Phillip has been joined by some longtime and newer band members for this tour: Jared Alexander on bass and trumpet, Evan Scott Penza on guitar, Bobby Steinfeld on keys, and Vincent Williams on drums.
Friends of the site and photographers Elvan McMillen and Erika Houser attended two of Phillip’s shows in Washington, DC and in Philadelphia, PA. Take a look at some of their photos from these shows!
Finally, watch an amazing fan recap video of the show at the Lincoln Theatre in Wahington, DC.
Please visit his official site for all the tour news and to see if Phillip is coming to your city!
Special contribution by Thad Williams.
Phillip Phillips’ 4th studio album Drift Back has finally been released after a five-year wait, and the collection of 10 songs brings a mix of both new and familiar sounds to convey a series of different perspectives on one common theme: Love. The eighth track on the album, “Long Time,” is no exception to this pattern, providing a look at love as it grows throughout the years and as the lives of the people involved change over time.
There is an unshakable, heartbreaking sadness permeating Phillip Phillips’ most recent album, Drift Back. Released June 9, this is Phillips’ fourth album and his first in 5 years.
It’s difficult to believe that half a decade separates Collateral (2018) and this album, but to listen to Drift Back is to understand the passing of time and the changes — and sometimes sorrow— it leaves behind.
It’s a natural process: growing up, facing the challenges that life brings, our youthful innocence and optimism tested by reality and disillusionment. In Drift Back, Phillip does that mainly through the lens of love, exploring what early love, mature love, and love that is ending look like, but also, the resilience of love and what fighting for it demands from us.
The album opens with the previously released “Dancing With Your Shadows,” an 80s-infused pop-rock song that explores dark subject matter over an addictive uptempo beat. In numerous interviews and posts he shared at the time the song came out, Phillip explained that the song was dedicated to his wife Hannah B. Phillips. The song speaks about the frustration one feels at being unable to help a loved one going through a difficult time. In the case of Phillip, this was his inability to help Hannah with recurrent health issues.
It’s an impeccable introduction to the sound of the album: musically restrained and efficient; warm but sharply recorded and produced. This is how much of the album can be described. Whereas in all his previous albums Phillip had given ample space to experimentation (songs like “Thicket” in Beyond the Light or “Sand Castles” or “I Dare You” in Collateral), in Drift Back he streamlines his songwriting to the essential, focusing of the lyrics and the best way to deliver them unencumbered.
That is one surprising aspect of Drift Back. Another is the revelation, which Phillip made recently during a radio show, that this is an independently released album.
Phillip released his first three albums with Interscope Records under 19 Recordings. The road has been less than smooth for Phillip in the last 10 years and his relationship with the music industry and his label has been complicated. Throughout it all, a few things have been clear: Phillip’s absolute discretion, his unwavering artistic integrity, and his incredible grit, courage, and determination.
Drift Back seems to capture thematically and musically some of these same characteristics, especially in how, despite the valleys and shadows of the relationships he describes in many of the songs, the ultimate message is of fighting for love until the last breath.
It’s the vivid fight of “Over,” where one person pleads with the other ‘don’t say is over’ or the devastating lyrics of “Love Come Back To Me,” where he seems to speak directly at Love and ask it ‘Love, you don’t come around, are you missing?’ or the starkly painful line, ‘I wanna be back there. Can we get back there. Cause I won’t let this be the way it ends’ in “Calm Before the Storm.”
If the sadness is at times heavy and dark, the sound of the album is unmistakable Phillip: crisp and warm, comforting and familiar. Phillip’s signature acoustic guitar riffs are enhanced by discreet electric guitars, synths, driving drums, and on one occasion, in the closer “So Will I,” a soulful saxophone. Unlike Phillip’s previous albums, where the experimental songwriting and arrangement seemed to be more on the forefront, musically, Drift Back is more subtle. Headphones are these songs’ best friend.
Another signature sound that is very present in the album is the cello, recorded by longtime friend and collaborator Dave Eggar, who has been working with Phillip since his debut. And it’s Eggar’s contribution that moves some of the songs into the more cinematic or narrative songwriting style that Phillip has displayed in the past. The best example of this is the magnificent “Calm Before the Storm,” (co-written by Phillip and Quinn Lewis) where Eggar’s cello is the foundation for the literal musical storm we hear in the chorus of the song and where even Phillip’s voice seems to come through us through the echo of stormy winds.
Drift Back was produced by Todd Clark and Tim Bruns, two veteran songwriters Phillip has a long history with. Todd Clark has worked with Phillip since his debut album, helping co-write numerous songs over the last eleven years (“Gone Gone Gone,” “Raging Fire,” and “Fly” among many others). For his part, Tim Bruns co-wrote one of Phillip’s most personal songs, “Dance With Me,” which served as Phillip and Hannah’s wedding song in 2015.
While each song deserves a special mention, “Strangers,” Phillip’s first official collaboration as part of his own album, shines musically and lyrically. With its bright country flavour, haunting melody, and new collaborator Caitlyn Smith’s superb vocals, this song is a wonderful departure for Phillip in this new phase of musical exploration. Drift Back was recorded entirely in Nashville, a city that has increasingly played a role in Phillip’s musical direction in the last several years. This song seems to perfectly encompass that modern country-pop Nashville sound.
After so much heartbreak, the album ends in a bright and hopeful tone with “So Will I,” a brilliant pop-rock song about unconditional love. The song captures the spirit of a declaration shouted out loud from the rooftops; it’s the renewal of a commitment to live fiercely and to overcome doubt and darkness by truly sharing our life with one another. It’s my favourite song in the album, the kind you can imagine singing out loud, arms raised in unison with thousands of others during a show. Perhaps it’s because I personally have experienced the lowest and darkest sides of sadness and depression that this song resonates so strongly for me. It tells me it is worth fighting for love and life.
In a recent interview, Phillip explained that this is a fully indie record and that as such, he had complete artistic control of the music, the songs selected as singles (he didn’t fully say it but implied it), and even the creation of the cover art of the album. This is an extraordinary achievement by Phillip, a musician whose career has teetered uneasily between a desire for artistic integrity and the demands of a cynical music industry from the very start. His origin story, being the winner of the most mainstream and popular music show in America, was the start of that uneasiness.
Despite it all, Phillip navigated this divide beautifully in all his previous albums. Now with Drift Back, he is announcing a new chapter, one where he gracefully and maturely “drifts back” to his origins as a songwriter and guitar player whose love of music drove him to pursue his wildest dreams and take huge risks while doing it.
“You cut like colours in the half-light” Phillip sings in “Before I Loved You.” With Drift Back, Phillip’s voice cuts like colours through the noise to deliver an album tempered by experience, love, and life.
Phillip Phillips’ new album Drift Back, is coming out in a mere 12 days on June 9. His first in 5 years, the album will also be the first since becoming a dad and going through the global trauma of the pandemic.
In preparation, Phillip has been ramping up in activities, releasing 4 songs from the album in 4 months, “Dancing With Your Shadows,” “Love Come Back to Me,” “Before I Loved You,” and “So Will I.” This is in addition to “Love Like That,” which he released in April 2022.
He has not yet shared the tracklist of Drift Back, but this could very well be close to half of the songs on a full-length album.
Overall, the themes of the songs have been about love, not the butterflies in the stomach kind, but the mature, complex relationships that test us and make us question ourselves and our love; the trials of relationships and the limitations of love. Moving and very personal, the songs naturally hint at the growth Phillip has experienced as a musician and a person in the last five years.
As part of his promotional activities, Phillip has also done a number of interviews to announce his upcoming album.
He talked to People Magazine in April in an exclusive, candid interview and appeared in the Songfacts Podcasts through a warm, long conversation. More recently, he appeared in a short, but great sit-down interview on ABC News.
On May 10, Phillip also announced a four-date mini-tour called “The Drift Back Sessions,” going from June 15 to June 23, plus his debut at the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville and a few other one-off shows. Check out the stops and dates (announced so far) on his official site here.
Phillip has also been doing a great series of videos on his YouTube channel, sort of like an extension of his Tik Tok videos. Check them out here if you haven’t or if you still haven’t made your way to that app (like me).
Finally, Phillip will be performing at this year’s Memorial Day Concert in Washington, DC tomorrow, Sunday, May 28th. The concert will be live-streamed on PBS’ website. You can watch it here!
It’s a lot to catch up to and we’re sure much more it’s to come from Phillip. We can’t wait for June 9th and what will surely be the summer of Phillip Phillips! What a time to be a fan!