My name is Terry Phillips, but my friends call me "Teep". I'm a musician living and working in the hills of East Tennessee. I've been playing, singing, and writing songs since I was 10 years old; at the ripe old age of 54, I see no reason to stop now.
I first started out playing in a few high school groups (one of which Luke Brunson was once a member and good colleague), and in 1970 I was first recorded with a Christian college youth group THE NATURAL HIGH SINGERS.
I was fortunate enough to have seen the Beatles in 1964 at The Gardens in Cincinnati, as well as having been to quite a few other well-known festivals and concerts throughout the years between then and now, and I use all these influences in my music and career.
I have music available for listening, but you have to access my webpage for that. Go to: www.teeper.org, and click on my jukebox, which has a bit more in the way of actual songs performed with a few friends I've known down through the years. They're older recordings, for the most part, provided you can actually access them. (An actual MySpace page featuring original songs I've recorded completely solo is coming very soon, so keep coming back!)In my musical career, I've had the good fortune of working with local artists ranging from folk-rock-grassers, Steve Robinson and Mike Rhodes (which later morphed into brother-duo Rhodes & Rhodes, with Mike's brother, Randy following Steve's departure), to acoustic songwriters like Sam Lewis and Bill Hnath, to bluesmen ranging from such disparate styles as Kirk Fleta, Brian Lee and Joe King; even jazz songstress Sara Schabe, acoustic duo Centralia Massacre, atmospheric lovemongers Hudson K, good-time rockers T. West Band, as well as even Americana songwriters the unique caliber of Van Eaton and Robert Lovett have made use of my talents occasionally. Most recently, I provided some guitar work for AZBURY, a project I'm extremely proud to have been a part of, and hopefully I'll continue to be a part of other bands' and artists' recorded output. I'm a studio dweller, for sure.
Having been heavily involved in the recording of two albums ("WILSON", 2004; "WORDS TO BURN", 2008) with the eclectic folk-rockers THE NEAR MYTHS (www.thenearmyths.com), of which I remain a proud member (distances between members and periods between gigs notwithstanding) I'm already in the planning stages of a third release with them. They are funny, intelligent and sensitive songwriters, and they've been friends of mine for many years, with many more still to come.In the 1980s, after a three-year stint as a radio disc jockey, during which I performed publicly rather sparsely, I was tapped to become bassist with Newport legends, Gary Breedlove and SILVERCLOUD, one of the first of a few musical jobs I had that didn't involve strictly guitar work. I also gained some notoriety in the mid-'80s by co-fronting the jam band, SHAKEDOWN. Other bands like the rockabilly masters REV IT UP, alt-grassers THE BACK PORCH ROCKERS, and the amazing duo ARMCHAIR BUDDHA have included me as an actual member at one time or another.
MOST RECENTLY, HOWEVER, I've joined a new local group of multi-instrumentally-inclined jambandmeisters, TONIC FOR DOGMA. They are original artists who play original music in an original way and already are casting an eye toward working on a completely original recording project. They even like to play a few covers, too, when the mood to do so strikes. They make me proud to be a working musician even in these bleak times. I'll probably be a member of that band until the wheels fall off. We'll see.
Meantime, please feel free to visit the pages of both Tonic For Dogma, The Near Myths, Azbury and other artists mentioned to see what I've been into lately. (Most of the folks mentioned in this profile have their own MySpace pages as well, so my work is pretty well represented there, too. Please visit them all, check out their music, and tell 'em Teeper sent you!)You may be thinking by now, "Gee, the boy can NOT hold down a job!" Wait, it gets better; I've performed on Americana radio station WDVX occasionally with legendary banjo master Wade Hill and also with the amazing country-rock group Azbury, as well as with BPR alumnus Kent Bilbrey, soulful acoustic artist Scott McMahan, and also with bluegrass mandolinist and bassist Jeffery Tolson, who is also a part of Azbury. I truly consider all these people friends and extended family, and I'm very proud of the work I've done with all of them. I've also worked with my son, Daniel Phillips, and with my daughter, Allison Marie in various live musical situations, and I'm ALWAYS proud to be working with them.As for more well-known artists, I've shared a stage with such luminaries as Archie Campbell, Suzy Bogguss, and John Henry III. Also, I've been fortunate enough to meet, and in some cases even be photographed with, folks like Sam Bush, John Cowan, and the late, great Carl Perkins. For a deaf-in-one-ear, middle-aged, increasingly solitary musician, I've certainly been awfully lucky in this life. Hopefully, there's more to come.
Thanks, friends, for coming along and sharing the ride with me!
Undecided, but voting my conscience!
I support voting for the person, not the party. Please watch tonight's debate and make a decision by November, friends! Our future and the future of our descendants depends on it!
Terry "Teep" Phillips wants you to check out a tagged photo on MySpace http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...
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Terry "Teep" Phillips wants you to check out a photo on MySpace in the Dark Hollow Ba http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...
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Teep jams with his friends in Dark Hollow Band!
Terry "Teep" Phillips wants you to check out a photo on MySpace in the Dark Hollow Ba http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...
Terry "Teep" Phillips wants you to check out a photo on MySpace in the My Photos albu http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...
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Teep W/T. West Band @ DG&B, 10-16-08
Terry "Teep" Phillips wants you to check out a photo on MySpace in the photos by www. http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...
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Teep @ DG&B w/ T.West Band 10-16-08
