One of Freestone County’s celebrated musicians may just win a Grammy this year.
Nominated for Best Historical Album of the Year is “Washington Phillips and His Manzarene Dreams,” compiled by producers Michael Corcoran, April G. Ledbetter, and Steven Lance Ledbetter; Michael Graves serving as mastering engineer.
Teague native, Doris Nealy, will join Corcoran for an interview with NPR/Atlanta to discuss her personal reflections of Mr. Phillips, who was her neighbor in the Simsboro Community.
They will be speaking with Celeste Headlee, the host of the Georgia Public Broadcasting program “On Second Thought.”
The interview is scheduled for Monday, December 18th at 2:00 p.m. Texas time.
The folks of Freestone County met with author and music critic, Michael Corcoran, back in January when he visited Teague for a book signing of “Manzarene Dreams.” Published by Dust-to-Digital of Atlanta, Georgia, the book includes a 16-track CD using the most pristine original 78rpm copies available, along with album notes.
Washington Phillips was a jack-leg preacher who recorded 18 songs with Columbia records between 1927 and 1929. Before Corcoran began researching his life, 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 in Freestone County, performing for friends and local churches before dying from a fall at the age of 74 years.
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards will be in New York City, taking place at Madison Square Garden January 28, 2018.
