Rod Phillips, Singer/Songwriter

By the age of 15, Rod's life work was pretty much set in his home town of Parsons, Kansas, as he played piano and organ in churches, sang at civic clubs and funerals, sang and played guitar in folk trios and had his own dance band, much of it for income. In high school and into college he played cello in the orchestra, percussion in the band, piano in the jazz band, and sang in every choir and musical he could find. In his last two years at Phillips University, he wrote two original scores for the local Miss Oklahoma pageant and garnered state and national acclaim.
His graduate years at North Texas State's famous music and jazz department earned him a Master's Degree in Music, then after Ph.D hours, a springboard for professional work in and around Dallas, then to Hollywood as Music Director with The New Christy Minstrels, and later back to Texas traveling with Michael Martin Murphey and the Wildfire band. The latter two acts included national tours and concerts all over the USA.
After a stint in and around Taos, New Mexico, playing with Dallas' "Young Country" and honing his solo entertainment skills, he moved to Austin, TX, then on to Branson, MO, where he played with the national acts The Dillards of "Andy Griffith" fame and Hollywood & Florida's funny man Jim Stafford, who wrote with the Smothers Brothers in the 70s.
During all of these experiences Rod was quietly building up his songwriting repertoire and eventually recorded 9 songwriter albums of over 100 songs.
Rod's eventual solo act sometimes features up to 15 instruments when he is playing in his home, Branson, but singing his own music is now his passion and he is appearing locally and traveling up to 200 miles to play in chamber concerts, home concerts, and sometimes churches singing of the experiences of his life, his family, his love of the outdoors, and spiritual fulfillment.