WELCOME TO THE LYRIC POETRY WEBSITE

RICHARD HAYES PHILLIPS is a lyric poet and a wandering minstrel, a link
to a bygone era.  A multifaceted musician, he sings, writes lyrics and
music, plays guitar, mandolin, kalimba and harmonica, and does all of it
beautifully.  All of his material is original or traditional.  He sings
no cover tunes.  Most of his repertoire consists of original material,
featuring beautiful melodies, intricate instrumental backing, and lyrics
with a purpose.  His lyrics are works of art; the meter is never awkward,
the rhyme is never forced, and the meaning is never obscure.  His themes
are timeless and universal; most of his writings are love songs,
celebrations of nature, broadside ballads, or social satires.  He sings
with a clear voice, and his words are easy to hear.  While his writing is
deeply influenced by the songwriters of the sixties, he is equally indebted
to the great poets and traditional musicians of the English-speaking world.
Nearly half of his repertoire consists of traditional music, including
folk songs from Scotland, Ireland, England and the southern Appalachians,
and Negro spirituals from the Deep South.

While he is self-taught as a performing artist, his mother was a music
teacher, and there have been musicians in his family for at least five
generations.  He began performing as a teenager, and he has appeared in
public a thousand times in restaurants, coffeehouses, Irish pubs, and
churches.  He has performed extensively in the Adirondack Mountains,
the Finger Lakes region, western New England, northern New Mexico,
southern California, North Carolina, and also in Ireland and Scotland.
He has been house musician at Schemmy’s Restaurant in Rhinebeck, New York,
the Wawbeek Resort and the Foote Rest Café at Saranac Lake, New York,
and the Apple Tree Restaurant in Taos, New Mexico, where he appeared
400 times.  He is featured on the website of North Country Public Radio
(http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/arts/concert_trad.html).