Phil Swanson

Phil is a guitarist/singer/songwriter currently living & giging in the Northeast.  In order to describe his sound, first you need to know a little about where he comes from.  Phil grew up in rural New Jersey, (yes, parts of NJ are still rural), the youngest of two chldren, his father a Methodist minister & his mother an English teacher in the local public school system.  Both of his parents had musical backgrounds so it wasn't surprising that he tried his hand at several instruments, (piano, trumpet),  before falling under the hypnotic power of the guitar as an early teen.  He learned quickly and was soon playing the music of his teenage idols (Kiss, The Stones, BTO, Sweet), in neighborhood rock bands.

He received his first acoustic guitar, (Yamaha 6-string), as a Christmas gift from his parents in High School, and it was through the acoustic guitar that he started to hone his songwriting skills. 

In the years since, although Phil has been in many bands playing a variety of genres of music, it has always been the acoustic guitar that he comes back too to write songs that catch your attention.  It would be obvious and quite easy, upon first listen, to describe Phil's music within the folk genre, when it actually is much broader.  The influences are all there; rock, jazz, pop, folk and every weird sub-group in between.  His acoustic guitar talents are obvious; at one moment sounding soft & sweet and in the next exploding with a rhythmic intensity and melodic strengh that catches your attention.

To put it simply, Phil is influenced by the world and people around him.  The constantly changing rhythm of life in the 21st century.  His writing is simple and to the point, drawing on subjects and images that affect him profoundly; longing, love, hope, and the search for truth and discovery in taday's rather potholed landscape.  In meeting him, you would think that he is a man of few words, very easy going & honest.  He is an artist who truely lets his music do the talking for him.

Phil performs fairly regularly in coffeehouses and bars in central Jersey & eastern Pennsylvania.