Texas music journalist, Michael Corcoran, will be in Teague this Saturday, January 28th for a Review and Signing of his new book, “Washington Phillips and His Manzarene Dreams.” The event will begin at 11:00 a.m. at the Community Center on Main Street.
Washington Phillips was a jack-leg preacher, from the neighboring Simsboro community, who recorded 18 songs with Columbia records between 1927 and 1929.
Corcoran says he was drawn to the music of Phillips for its sheer originality.
“When I first heard Phillips, in 1999, I had been a music critic for 25 years and I’d never heard anything like it,” says Corcoran. “It’s so simple, yet highly developed. A farmer who has a direct line to heaven.”
Before the author began his research on the life of Washington Phillips, music historians believed he had been admitted to a state mental hospital in 1930, dying of tuberculosis eight years later.
This seemed to explain why there were no more recordings after 1929 from the gospel-blues singer.
However, Corcoran soon discovered there were, in fact, two men with the same name. The musician Phillips returned to his home on the farm, performing for friends and local churches before dying from a fall at the age of 74 years.
One of the author’s favorite stories about the Texas musician came from Annie Mae Flewellen, who was related to both Washington Phillipes.
“She told me a story about how Wash Phillips, the gospel singer, gave her a pinch of snuff when she was a child and she passed out cold. I said, “you must mean the other Wash Phillips, not the preacher” and she insisted it was the Phillips from Simsboro,” says Corcoran.
Later, this story rang true when the author found a snuff bottle on the ground where the gospel singer’s house had been in Freestone County.
Relying only on his recordings, music experts once believed that the musical instrument Phillips played was a dolceola, a rare keyboard instrument that is hammered when played.
“It was actually a dolceola owner who first told me there was some dispute about the instrument Phillips played,” says Corcoran. “The 1928 photo of Phillips holding two zithers wasn’t proof enough to some dolceola enthusiasts.”
According to Corcoran, the dolceola theory was not disproven until Freestone County folks – including Virgil Keeton, Doris Nealy, Durden Dixon and others – who knew Phillips personally, showed him how the singer plucked the strings as he played.
The community is encouraged to come meet author Michael Corcoran, and learn more about one of Freestone County’s celebrated musicians.
