Grant Lee

Grant-Lee Phillips' latest album, Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff, is a turbulent and highly musical rumination that finds the veteran singer-songwriter at his most inspired. His tenth solo release bears the markings of his prolific output, a melodic prowess and an ear for lyric in everyday conversation. The album is grown from the same rich soil that Phillip's long career, from Grant Lee Buffalo to his solo work has sprang from. The result is a beautifully human musical tapestry. The warm, live on the floor, instrumental bed is the perfect support for Phillips' inimitable voice. This spontaneous approach has become a tradition among his solo works. This record is supported by peerless drummer, Jay Bellerose (whose many credits include Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant) and bassist Jennifer Condos (heard on Bruce Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad and other classics).

When you're a musician used to a certain creative groove, it's disorienting to have this rhythm disrupted. But that was just the position Grant-Lee Phillips found himself in spring 2020: Months before the release of a new full-length, Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff — an album he was already previewing on an early 2020 tour with John Doe and Kristin Hersh — the pandemic led to the cancellation of tour dates and other promotional plans.

Grant-Lee Phillips’ new album, All That You Can Dream, is a turbulent and highly musical rumination that finds the veteran singer-songwriter addressing the strange fragility of life. The collection of songs bears the markings of his prolific output, a melodic prowess and an ear for lyric in everyday conversation. Comparable to the works Low or Duster, Phillips offers a salve to a wounded world, struggling to regain equilibrium. This is Grant-Lee Phillips at his most reflective, wrestling with the most pertinent of questions. Focusing on life in quarantine ("A Sudden Place," "Cruel Trick") and the ever-shifting political landscape ("Rats in a Barrel," "Cut to the Ending"), this collection shows that Phillips remains one of the finest singer-songwriters of our time.