You Should Have Known Me Then

Amazon.com
As it turns out, this lanky Tar Heel is more than just a twangy roots rocker par excellence. Lee's sophomore release for Shanachie reveals a songwriter of great wit, sympathy, and conscience, as steeped in the best post-Dylan confessionalists as musical heroes like Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Williams. Befriended by Nashville guitarist and producer Richard Bennett, as well as Wilco alumni Jay Bennett, Ken Coomer, and John Stirratt, Lee still throws down the Stonesy country rock, but his irony-free songwriting is his ace in the hole. From the tale in hard times "3 Faces in the Window" (with Gillian Welch), to the political folk rock of "Babylon," to the torchy "It's Crying" (a duet with Allison Moorer), and the comic but genuinely wise and regretful title track (played as a guitar and harmonica demo), Lee shows that inside his trashy trailer rock is a heart as big as the 18 wheelers he used to drive. --Roy Kasten

Tracks:

Good For Me
Babylon
Just Some Girl
Carl's Got Louise
2 For The Price Of 1
Jemima James
Daddy's Jail
3 Faces In The Window
Nobody's Gotta Know
Any Harder Than It Is
It's Crying
You Should Have Known Me Then

Amazon.com

As it turns out, this lanky Tar Heel is more than just a twangy roots rocker par excellence. Lee's sophomore release for Shanachie reveals a songwriter of great wit, sympathy, and conscience, as steeped in the best post-Dylan confessionalists as musical heroes like Jerry Lee Lewis and Hank Williams. Befriended by Nashville guitarist and producer Richard Bennett, as well as Wilco alumni Jay Bennett, Ken Coomer, and John Stirratt, Lee still throws down the Stonesy country rock, but his irony-free songwriting is his ace in the hole. From the tale in hard times "3 Faces in the Window" (with Gillian Welch), to the political folk rock of "Babylon," to the torchy "It's Crying" (a duet with Allison Moorer), and the comic but genuinely wise and regretful title track (played as a guitar and harmonica demo), Lee shows that inside his trashy trailer rock is a heart as big as the 18 wheelers he used to drive. --Roy Kasten

Customer Reviews:

What music's all about.......2003-11-20

This guy's a gem! A great disc of roots rock. Reminds me of Tim Carroll, Tommy Womack, Lonesome Bob and to some degree, Robbie Fulks. A wicked sense of humour, and some nasty lyrics match his brand rock & roll twang. You don't hear enough guy's like this these days. This made my top five last year, and I like it even more today.

probably the best album I have heard this year.......2002-04-11

Up until 3 months ago I had not heard of Phil Lee - now he is hardly off my cd player. If you like real music, whether it is country, rock or blues you will like his songs and the sense of humour with which he does it!!! A very good album - if you are into Steve Earle, Buddy Miller or Dwight Yoakam then you will like Phil Lee.

Great CD - Happy, Sad and Funny!.......2002-01-07

I picked up this album after seeing it listed by a local columnist as his #1 favorite from 2001. Great rock and country combination with wonderful lyrics. The previous two reviews hit the nail on the head. I like all the tracks but Just Some Old Girl, the rocking Bo Diddley beat of Daddy's Jail, the sadness of 3 Faces in the Window and the joy of Nobody Gotta Know are my favorites. There's even a hint of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound in It's Crying, which has a hint of Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison rolled into it. Great production quality on this CD. Phil Lee is somebody that you should know about.

Terrific.......2001-11-18

2001 has been an exceptionally strong year for quality music and this criminally overlooked gem by Phil Lee ranks among its' very best releases. Although he is often lumped into the classic rock/twang category, such labels are a disservice to the vibrant spirit of Phil Lee's music. There is nothing derivative or umimaginative about You Should Have Known Me Then.

Things are off to a rollicking start with the opener, Good For Me. The tune is infectious and the lyrics a wry update on the loveable but shiftless layabout who just wants to party and avoid getting a day job. What is marvelous about the song is that it shouldn't work. We've all heard umpteen variations on this theme.....but Phil Lee gets away with it. He gets away with it because he is simulataneously smarter than the guy he's singing about and yet he delivers the song with such conviction and charm that we buy it. Babylon, the next track, is one of the catchiest rockers in recent memory. Imagine if Billy Joe Shaver
wrote Desolation Row and that pretty much sums up Babylon. It's a song that deserves to wear out the repeat button on your stereo.

Phil Lee is also aces at writing songs about men and women doing each other wrong. Mostly men. Carl's Got Louise and especially 2 For The Price Of 1 give off a Sticky Fingers-era Stones' vibe and either track would compare favorably to anything The Glimmer Twins conjured up. Any Harder Than It Is and 3 Faces In The Window see Lee shift into a less snarky, more sincere mode. Accompanied by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, 3 Faces In The Window, much like Good For Me, manages to shake off the rote nature of the material and is a moving social commentary on those that have and those that don't. Any Harder Than It Is is probably the best vocal performance on the album. Where Lee seems to be enjoying himself on the other busted love songs, this shows a much darker and wounded man. A mesmerizing track.

On the title track that closes the album, Phil Lee brings the pathos and the humor together with stunning results. The lyrics are often side-splittingly funny but, with each verse the singer becomes less a hell-raising braggart and more touchingly regretful over his past indiscretions as well as acknowledging his best days are past him now. Unfortunately this album, which also features members of Wilco, has gotten next-to-no publicity or critical backing and like Alejandro Escovedo's superb Man Under The Influence seems fated to go unnoticed while Britney Spears and Jennifer Anniston grace the cover of Rolling Stone.

You Oughta Buy This Now.......2001-10-11

OK, Phil Lee is not for everyone. If you recently purchased anything off of Billboard's top 20 singles charts then you probably won't like him. And OK I've been a fan of Phil Lee's for a long while. This CD will show you why. If a better song than "Three Faces In the Window" has been written in the last 25 years please email me the title so I can make sure I own it. If you listen to "Jemima James" without smiling and don't want to hear it again immediately (no matter what you recently purchased) you're just not paying attention. If you listen to "Carl's Got Louise" without laughing out loud check your pulse. Just so you'll know what I'm not incapable of criticism, I don't think the duet between Phil and Allison Moorer (who has a beautiful voice and is a great talent) on "It's Crying" really worked. But the rest of the songs from the rocking "Daddy's Jail" to the tragic "Just Some Girl" are different versions of brilliant.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Phil Lee is a national treasure. A songwriter/artist who has gone through hell so he could, and because he did, hang onto his need and desire to tell what life is really like, instead of scrambling for what might get played on radio. And somehow, he finally come out the other side with a record deal. I'm a songwriter of some success and no matter how often I listen to these songs I feel inadequate and inspired to do better. The understated production by guitar great Richard Bennett is perfect, framing the intimacy and attitude of these songs instead repainting them. You'll be doing yourself, the state of radio, and in my opinion society a favor if you call and request that your local station play this CD...relentlessly...until they do. (I promise I'm not involved with this project!)
If a time capsule was buried today and you want to show folks of the future what we settled for..throw in a couple of CD's off the "hot sellers" list. But if you want to convey into the future what being human is truly about, at it's worst and at it's best...Phil Lee's "You Should Have Known Me Then" has got to be on top.

Music Album:

Music Album