Phil Lee

Phil Lee spent his childhood in Durham, North Carolina, surrounded by tobacco warehouses and the presence of Duke University. From his teenage years onward he performed and composed, securing his initial paid engagement during the 1960s as drummer for Homer Briarhopper and the Daybreak Gang on a Raleigh morning television broadcast that preceded the Farm News. In 1971 he relocated to New York City and eventually took the drum chair with the group Amazing Grace, whose members at the time included Beverly D'Angelo, Rob Stoner, and Hank DeVito. By roughly 1974 Lee had shifted to Los Angeles, where he contributed to film scores alongside Jack Nitzsche and also drove trucks for Neil Young. Returning to North Carolina in the middle of the 1980s, he continued writing songs while taking occasional long-haul driving assignments. A short-lived association with The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1993 preceded his move to Nashville, where he obtained a publishing contract that soon ended. Steady truck-driving work remained available there, and Lee simultaneously began shaping a honky-tonk project with producer Richard Bennett that became his debut solo album, The Mighty King of Love, issued by Shanachie Records in January 2000. The resulting music condenses three decades of performances in juke joints and taverns spanning the continent. His compositions combine uncommon wit with blunt directness. Time spent at the rear of countless bandstands supplied ample opportunity to consider how he would approach the front of the stage, and once positioned there he offers no substandard songs.