Grant Lee Phillips

Singer-songwriter Grant Lee Phlllips (born Bryan Phillips) was a California native who came into music from a showbiz background. He performed as a child magician at age ten, and as a teenager performed at a melodrama/vaudeville revival house in his native Stockton. He came to Los Angeles in 1983 to study film, but would up dropping out of UCLA. By 1987 he'd formed the band Shiva Burlesque with Stockton friend Jeffrey Clark; he also continued with film and music studies at CalArts. The band split after two albums, and Phillips began performing solo as Grant-Lee Buffalo (the name was sometimes hyphenated and sometimes not). With the addition of Joey Peters (drums) and Paul Kimble (bass), both also ex-Shiva Burlesque, the regular trio lineup was in place. The name, Phillips explained, was meant to conjure a classic American character somewhere between Buffalo Bill and Harry Houdini. The group's calling card was its first single "Fuzzy", which sported a haunting falsetto chorus; the song was first released on Bob Mould's short-lived Singles Only Label and then became the title track of the band's first Slash album. The follow-up, Mighty Joe Moon was written while Phillips and Kimble were temporarily homeless, their places destroyed by the January 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. Grant-Lee Buffalo released four albums during its nearly-ten year existence, remaining mainly a cult and critical success. However Phillips was gathering praise from other songwriters including Michael Stipe, who called Fuzzy the best album of 1992; and Robyn Hitchcock, who did a couple of duo tours with Phillips and later covered his song "Don't Look Down." Grant Lee Buffalo also toured with R.E.M. in 1995, and at one show their drummer Peters filled in for R.E.M.'s ailing Bill Berry. Grant-Lee Buffalo ended in 1999 and Phillips made his solo debut, the stripped-down and all-solo Ladies Love Oracle the following year. Meanwhile he returned to the film world, first with an appearance in the indie film "1 Giant Leap" which included Stipe and Dennis Hopper. He scored a number of more mainstream films including "Velvet Goldmine" and "Easy", but made his highest-profile appearance as the Town Troubadour in the TV series "Gilmore Girls" (WB/CW 2000-07). He also co-wrote comedian Margaret Cho's song taking on racial stereotypes, "Asian Adjacent." Phillips' own music career continued with 2014's country-flavored Virginia Creeper and 2015's covers album Nineteeneighties, which covered Hitchcock and R.E.M. along with the Pixies, the Church and Nick Cave. Phillips' Americana ventures continued with 2015's The Narrows, inspired in part by his own Native American heritage.