Album Notes

"Carl Sandburg Meets Elvis in a Dark Alley...."

While compared by some reviewers to Woody Guthrie, Kurt Cobain adn A.P. Carter, Stripmall Ballads has developed a style entirely his own: poetic, dark, energetic, possessed, and reluctantly romantic. An obvious devote student of US roots musical tradition, he fuses virtuosic historical convention with contemporary lyrics. 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."

Behind the moniker, Phillips 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 performing across North America; from his early days playing shows to hobos under Western Maryland's railroad bridges to recent collaborations with some of new-folks most talented performers (Jolie Holland, Sam Parton). With another new album, "Ballads, Stripmall"(see more about Stripmall Ballads on CDbaby), Stripmall Ballads continues to evolve and surprise.

After five years of fronting the old-time revival duo, The Shiftless Rounders,Saylor created Stripmall Ballads as a vehicle to focus on his original compositions and contextual performances. For the last year Stripmall Ballads has toured excessively across North America promoting latest album, "Since Jimmy Died."

"SINCE JIMMY DIED is fractured and flawed.......and for those reasons it is also hauntingly gorgeous, melding Appalachian roots with intimate, Beat poet-esque lyrical ruminations." - Seven Days (burlington, vt)