Shawn Phillips in Concert

He helped define folk-rock in the 1960s and progressive-new-age rock in the 1970s, taught George Harrison to play the sitar and helped Joni Mitchell learn to play guitar. He shared a London flat with Donovan and Paul Simon, sang on the Beatles Lovely Rita (Meter Maid), and was originally cast to play the lead in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar . and now lives in South Africa, where he volunteers as and EMT and firefighter, sea rescue worker.

With some 20 albums and multiple appearances on the Billboard charts, you know his music. So how did Shawn come to play in our 180 seat venue? In an interview with Modern Guitars he was asked about 'losing his audience'.

"No, no you don't lose people, you just lose the music industry. The people that listen to you, most of them, I'd say eighty-five to ninety percent of them want to hear the evolution of what you're doing as an artist. The music business doesn't want you to evolve at all. They want you to stay in a formula profit winning situation. If you really are going to be a true musician, you must evolve musically.