2007 ON ROCKY START FOR TEEP & "TENANTS"
Sunday, January 28, 2007, 11:01 PM
Happy 2007, few yet faithful fans of TEEPER!!!
Terry L. Phillips (aka "Teep", or "Teeper," depending...) is back at work on several ongoing musical projects in the East Tennessee and surrounding area after being sidelined by prostate surgery last fall.
Most recently, he's been seen performing with a band called TONIC FOR DOGMA, which includes his former DJANGO colleague, Chris Towson. Two other "Chris" -es comprise this small, yet fearsome combo. Guitarist Chris Voorhees became a fast friend of Teeper when he jammed with Towson and Teep at a Mexican restaurant in Alcoa and has invited Teep to play with TFD whenever he's available, which is looking more like "more often than not". We caught up with Teep as he passed by our offices (hidden miles beneath the earth somewhere...) and he agreed to a short interview. Herewith:
JUBILEEERS: We've been waiting to hear what's up with you these days. Last summer in Gatlinburg was sort of the last place we found you, wasn't it?
TEEP (drops into chair): Yeah, it's been awhile. Oh, I still play with a bunch of folks whenever the need or opportunity arises. I kind of consider myself to be an unrecorded session guy. I've been on record with Wade Hill, for instance, but I've played live with him much more than I've ever recorded with him.
J: We heard Chris Towson got you involved with a band he's in. Any news you can pass along about that?
T: Yeah, TONIC FOR DOGMA. Very eclectic bunch, and great guys besides. As soon as one of them gives me some sort of bio, I'll send it over. I CAN tell you that, with me, the band's comprised of two guitars, a drummer and a percussionist, and a keyboard player. And of course, Chris Towson on bass. They've already been together in a couple of other incarnations, so they know each others' musical moves pretty well. And the thing that attracts me, of course, is that they can JAM so well. You know how much I like to play "space"...
J: Yes, we know. Shakedown could go from song to song pretty well.
T: Yeah, well...these guys have the same thing, and they play quite a lot of cover stuff presently, but they're good tunes, they show a lot of sophistication. I think their greatest strength lies in their original material, though. In rehearsals, we're even going through stuff Towson and I played back in Django with Melinda LeFevre. TONIC plays 'em like they've known 'em forever! I'm just blown away with their courage! They all really know what they're doing!
J: Sounds like you've been playing a lot lately.
T: It does sound like I've been pretty busy. It's not really that way, though. I mean, I've played a house party thing with Hurricane Dennis and a few others, you know...I did have a great time at the WDVX Christmas party over in Maryville last year. I got to do my "playing with backing tracks" thing, and it worked out pretty good. But jobs have been scarce this winter. I'm hoping it will pick up closer to warmer weather. Maybe Kirk Fleta will call me or something...you never know. Say, I DID recently get to play a gig at the Corner Lounge with Wade Hill and a great local country singer, Robert Lovett. It was my daughter, Allison Marie"s 23rd birthday and she and I got up and did a short set of covers, and that was really cool. Chris Helms played percussion with me and Alley, and he really added a lot to the scene! He's one of the guys named Chris in TONIC FOR DOGMA, you know. But Alley did a really good job at the gig, and the people really liked her! She has a great voice and great attitude to boot. Her vocation is to be a music teacher, but she's pretty much at home on any stage. So that was fun to do. And let's see... The Near Myths are still working on the mixing stage for their second album, WORDS TO BURN. Although we lost our other guitar player Andy Oglesby to cancer last summer, he left us three precious tracks to work on, and we did the best we could with them. It's a pretty good batch of tunes, and it's a songwriter's fest amongst the Myths! Ben Greene wrote three, Jim Clark wrote three, I threw in three as well, and Bernadette, our keyboard player, contributed a song too. We've got a couple of finished songs in the can already, but we've still got a little ways to go before it's released. WILSON, the first TNM album, is still available, though. Just check out their website (www.thenearmyths.com) and you can order it directly from them. I still like that album a lot, too.
J: Any personnel changes in the group since you lost Andy?
T: Yeah, in a way. One of our guitarists and singers, Katy Adams, has a son named Matthew, and he's a really good drummer, so we used him on this second album to sort of lighten the load on me a little, but it still sounds like the same band in a lot of ways. We're changing, of course, since Andy's gone, but there's something very stable about them, too, which I like. At least from my end of things, Andy's still as much a part of us as he'll ever be, you know, and all of us still bring something good to the music, so I look forward to continuing in twos and threes with them whenever the chance arises. They're very original, and they can put out good stuff for a few more years to come.
As for playing a lot though, I'm not making much money these days. And although I'm still having a bit of aches and pains, I'm still having fun, but it's less fun than it used to be. Oh, people still come out to see me and whoever I throw my lot in with, but old age has unfortunately set in and it's frustrating. I'm very grateful to the fans, though. They've been very good to me all these years. They still show up at the gigs and visit the radio shows, too. And they seem to like my daughter a lot, too, so I'm enjoying that aspect of things.
J: Rumor has it that video footage from "SHAKEDOWN" days exist. Any word on that?
T: I'm surprised you mentioned that. Yes, it exists. (Chuckles nervously...) Ahh...it's in the process of being edited and digitized, but yes, it does exist. It's from a show we did in 1987 at a place on the UT (University of Tennessee) strip that no longer exists. (Note: It was known as "The Library".) It's not publicly available yet, though. And it may not be, either. I'd have to contact the other members of the band for that, and I've NO idea how I could do that right now.
J: What's on the video? Any tunes you do now?
T: (Laughs) Yes and no! I mean, there's a pretty good version of "Fire On The Mountain" on there, I think, but...see, Chris Towson won't let me do it in rehearsals, you know, he just assures me that TONIC FOR DOGMA can do it IF NEED BE! (Laughs) He's done it enough with another Dead cover band, CAUTION. That's funny, though, that you mention that, because our keyboard player in SHAKEDOWN, Hooper Stiles, played one or two of our former bass player Bob Patrick's songs in his last band, WILLIS. so those old days seem to follow us ALL around in one way or another.
J: Anything you'd like to see happen?
T: Mmmm...you mean, outside of the chance that all of my favorite groups could all magically materialize and gig together?
J: Seriously...
T: Okay, I'd like to become independently wealthy.
J: We mean, realistically.
T: Oh, then...I'd just like to see the new Near Myths' CD produced, and...I guess I'd like to retire. Except I can't retire yet. I'm too poor to afford it. Also, my strings need replacing, and I'll have to play a gig or two to get new sets. (deeply sighs) And so it goes... (gets up to leave.)
J: Have you written anything lately?
T: Yeah, Ben Greene and I did a sort of a "John-&-Paul", where I already had a song and he threw in a middle-eight.
J: Can you tell us about it?
T: It's called, "Come Out And Dance". It's still in the growing stages, so I can't talk much about it. It was originally conceived as a Cat Stevens sort of Greek-Latin thing, rhythmically, but it's still evolving. If we get to do a third album, I'd guess it will be on that.
J: Well, Teep, thanks for stopping by and talking to us. We know how fortunate we are to get you in here.
T: You might see more of me than you want to, now that I'm working less. (Giggles maniacally.)
J: Go home, Teep.
T: See ya later! Stay in touch!
So ends this installment of the doings of "the Teep". And in answer to the many questions we've gotten of late: yes, Teep IS deaf in one ear, his left one. It is a congenital birth defect he suffered due to being born almost three months premature. (We think that, over the years, with his great music and his good vibes, he's more than made up for all of that.) He can't hear stereo, but he understands the concept surprisingly well ("Thanks to Sgt. Pepper," says Terry.)
In addition to the deaf ear, he also has smaller hands and feet, which is another common occurrence among premature births. He suffered other things at birth, for which he spent a couple of months in an incubator. (He's truly a survivor!) Other than that, he's considered a fairly normal individual...especially to those who don't know him personally! (We prefer to think of our Teeper as a lovable curmudgeon!)
Lately, Teeper has been both working with old musical acquaintances and collaborating with new ones as well, continuing to hone his musical skills on several fronts; he's still adept at playing a number of instruments and last year worked on some backing tracks he uses for solo shows, on which he plays ALL the instruments, including both acoustic and electric guitars, bass, mandolin, keyboards and drums, and even a little banjo is thrown into the mix. (He's dubbed his "band in his mind" on the tracks THE STRINGTOWN TENANTS. More on that in the future.)
We hope you all will continue to send email and posts here at teeper.org. We love hearing from fans of all of Terry's musical projects! Teeper has no available merchandise yet, but he still has that ever-present solo album in mind, so stay tuned here for more information on that as it becomes available. We'll keep trying to keep you all up to date concerning Teep's musical whereabouts, best as we can. We're attempting to try to get him back for another, hopefully lengthier interview (scheduled for April), so keep visiting and posting! Thanks for tuning us in (and turning us on, musically speaking).
And, as Teeper himself always says, STAY IN TOUCH!!!
The repeatedly-hired, unfireable Jubileeers
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