K Phillips was first brought to my attention as an artist of note during a visit to Standing Sun Wines last year to interview owner John Wright about his wine collaboration with Adam Duritz of Counting Crows and artist Felipe Molina. Wright excitedly queued up a YouTube video of Duritz performing Phillips’ “Kay’s Song” at the Outlaw Road Show in New York on Oct. 30, 2014.
Wright pointed to Phillips in the video, who was just off the stage listening, stunned with emotion when he realized it was his song being performed. Halfway through the song Duritz invited Philips onstage, and the two sang the heartfelt country/folk song together.
Recently Phillips reflected back on that moment.
“I found myself watching the Counting Crows at Bowery Electric in New York, and during the show they played one of my songs,” Phillips said. “That was one of the greatest moments of my life, sending that video to all of the girls who broke up with me.”
Now, two years later, Duritz has invited Phillips onstage again, but as an opening act for the Counting Crows and Rob Thomas’ national summer tour.
The tour includes a Sept. 8 show in Los Angeles and a Sept. 10 show in Mountain View, between those shows Phillips is going to make a stop in Buellton on Sept. 9 to perform a show with his band at Standing Sun Wines in the evening.
While there, Phillips will sing cuts of his new—as of yet unreleased—album, Dirty Wonder, which comes out this fall. The first single off the album, “Hadrian,” actually features Duritz singing backup with Phillips. The Counting Crows frontman has been a powerful friend and influence, Phillips said, and actually helped write some of “Hadrian,” though he asked for no credit.
“It’s like he’s a big brother,” Phillips said. “He’s a great role model to have, he’s a very artful person. He puts the art before everything else.”
Duritz helped him with the song while he was signing wine labels for Standing Sun Wines, Phillips explained, and they recorded the vocals that night. Phillips has performed at Standing Sun Wines before and said he’s excited to return.
The concert will be a reunion of sorts, Phillips said, as artist Molina is showing his art at Standing Sun’s gallery as well. Molina is the artist who created the art for Counting Crows’ albums and the collaborative wine label created by Wright, Duritz, and Molina. The “connections are many,” Phillips said, regarding his relationship with the trio.
“When I first met John [Wright] was at Adam’s [Duritz] house, and they were talking about doing a colab on the wine,” he said. “I was there when they were discussing it, they actually cite me on the website. I was playing the piano when they were all talking about it.”
So Wright, Molina, and Phillips will get a chance to hang together at Standing Sun Wines for Phillips’ show on Sept. 9, where Phillips will sell advanced copies of his album. The reunion would seem a little incomplete without Duritz though, but Phillips was coy when asked if the Counting Crows frontman would make it out to Buellton as well.
“There will be some special guests, that’s all I can say,” he said. “I can’t say who, but maybe they will be some people from the tour.”
Arts Editor Joe Payne has a guess who it might be. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
VIA COUNTING CROWS CHANNEL/YOUTUBE.COM
This article appears in Sep 1-8, 2016.