Director Cameron Crowe always chooses the best music to accompany his films so I always try and get the soundtracks. It never fails that I find a new artist or band by listening to Crowe’s choices. I fell in love with Jeff Buckley after hearing Last Goodbye on the Vanilla Sky soundtrack and Springsteen’s Secret Garden from Jerry Maguire always chills me out when I’m stressed.

Now I have been drawn into a music mystery because of a Crowe soundtrack.

I first heard Washington Phillips last fall when I purchased the Elizabethtown Vol 2 soundtrack. The grainy, old recording of What Are They Doing In Heaven Today was a simple yet profound track. Phillips voice, while extremely nasal, is strikingly original and comforting. I liked the song yet I never really thought anything about more Phillips or the strange sound of his instrument. That is until this morning.

While listening to the Theme Time Radio Hour with Bob Dylan, I again heard that distinct voice and that strange instrument. The theme this week was the Bible and Bob played Phillips’ Denomination Blues.

You can go to the college
You can go to the school
But if you ain’t got Jesus
You’re an educated fool

After the song Bob said that there were two rumors about Washington Phillips.

1) He died in a metal institution or
2) He died at the age of 74 by the result of a fall off some stairs

“Believe what you will,” Dylan said.

“Very Interesting,” I thought. Other than that song off of Elizabethtown, I had never heard of him. After lunch I hopped onto the information super highway to check out a bit more about this Washington Phillips.

What I found only added to the mystery of what Dylan said concerning the confusion of Phillips’ death.

The world only has 18 Washington Phillips songs. Most of them are self contained sermons. I downloaded the album, The Keys to the Kingdom, from iTunes today and have been blown away at the depth of lyric in these songs. He even preaches some mini-sermons before playing a few of the songs. Good stuff.

Nobody knows where he came from. He just sort of arrived on the Gospel music scene in the late ’20s and before 1929 was over he had left it.

The biggest mystery of all though has to do with his distinct sound. There is a great debate as to what kind of instrument he played. Some say it was a zither. Most a dolcenea. Still others believe that Phillips made the instrument himself. Nobody knows. There is a photo from 1928 that show him holding what seems to be two fretless zithers but the debates go on.

The whole things is pretty interesting. Too bad more people haven’t heard of Phillips.

I would recomend the following Washington Phillips songs for you add to your music libraries: (iTunes links)
Lift Him Up That’s All
What Are They Doing In Heaven Today
I’m Born to Preach the Gospel

I hope you will check him out. I promise you it will be worth your time. He won’t win any awards for his voice. Then again, neither would Woody Guthrie or Dylan. The beauty though is in the heart.