Search - Sam Phillips :: Turning

The Turning from Light to Shadow

Robin McDonald | USA | 04/22/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was talking to a friend at a camp and said I wish I knew some other good Christian music besides Amy Grant. He asked if I knew Leslie Phillips and I said yes. He didn't know I meant I went to high school with her and I didn't know she was a singer. Actually I had heard her sing but didn't know she had albums. So he recommended a couple albums and one was "The Turning"....The Turning was really good and I like the short review that said simply that this was one of the more honest Christian albums they have heard. And I like it because it reflects a longing for faith but also the strangling effect of being a Christian Artist. She sings pointedly about how the community applies pressure to say the "right" things in her music. "You Lock me up with your expectations... Loosen the pressure you choke me with...I can't breathe...I can't breathe." That's a pretty heavy point blank shot at a sector of the often critical Christian music buying public who don't like it when the songs depart from the expected praise and worship. Clearly this is a goodbye album to the Christian community filled with fond rememberances and frustration. For that alone it is pretty fascinating. But musically it is really a lushly recorded rich accoustic experience with some nice haunting percussion. "The Turning" is aptly named. At some point a lot of Christians come to a point where they have to say to the Christian Community. This album says "I love you but it hurts too much to stay with you anymore. I can't squeeze into what you want me to be." Its dark and a little sad, but if you have been there and felt the feelings, this CD might resonate with you."

Re-release of The Turning brings back more than nostalgia...

Michael E. Burke | 32221 amber bay loop anchorage, AK 99515 | 07/02/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First, my biases: (Lesley) Sam Phillips has long been one of the voices of hope and sanity where faith and art dance. Along with the likes of Peter Case, Mark Heard, Pierce Pettis, T Bone Burnett, Maria McKee, Vigilantes of Love, Bruce Cockburn, Ashley Cleveland, Kris Kristofferson, and a handful of others, Sam has given witness over the years to the struggle of "faith, hope, and love" against loss, despair, and cynicism on the one side and superficiality, banality, and denial on the other. Years ago, Leonard Cohen asked "When they said 'Repent!', I wondered what they meant..." "The Turning" takes the question seriously, realizing that any "Slow Turning" can bend in both directions. Put this on the CD player along with John Hiatt's "Stolen Moments," Bruce Cockburn's "Charity of Night," and Lone Justice's "Shelter," and live the questions right out loud.Rev. Michael Burke St, George's Episcopal Church 635 Wilder Road Hilton, NY 14468mepburke@aol.comAs Kimm Rogers said, "This ain't a movie..." \ "Its just the Soundtrack of my Life...""

Worth listening to regardless of your religious affiliation

Michael E. Burke | 08/10/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had never heard of Christian music, much less Leslie Phillips, when I went off to college in 1988. I was introduced to her music by my Christian roommate (I was not and still am not Christian myself). Much of the Christian music he listened to was mediocre, but there were a few genuine talents that stood out, foremost among them Phillips, the Call, and Phil Keaggy. Most of their lyrics were poetic and compelling and didn't shove Christianity down my throat, and the music was truly original and, well, GOOD. The Call were successful mainstream rockers in their own right, and Keaggy was and is a well-known guitar guru. To this day I think The Turning is Phillips's best work. Even a Zen-pantheist heathen like myself still thoroughly enjoys listening to it."