Noteworthy Moments: Dexter multi-instrumentalist Brad Phillips on his work with Patti LuPone, University of Michigan, and his daughter
It’s a bittersweet time in Brad Phillips’ life.
“My daughter Alyson is off to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts next month, and I’ve been weeping big dad tears on and off all summer,” said the Dexter singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Alyson is a singer, and she’ll join her dad for a special show at The Ark on August 8 along with bandmates Chris DuPont, Drew De Four, Brennan Andes, Keith Billik, and Mike Shea.
Brad has also been busy as a lecturer at the University of Michigan, a resident artist at The Purple Rose Theatre Company, touring with actress and singer Patti LuPone, and featuring on her new album, A Life in Notes, playing violin, mandolin, guitar, octave mandolin, and U-bass.
“Patti is an icon and it’s no accident. She’s a legend for a reason and to be on stage with her in front of her adoring fans is electric,” Phillips said. “Summer has been both chaotic, emotional, and wonderful all at the same time! It’s been a big year around here.”
To learn more, I spoke with Phillips about his work and tour with Patti LuPone and his family’s artistic accomplishments.
Q: How have things been going with your teaching position at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance (SMTD) and as a resident artist at The Purple Rose Theatre Company?
A: I love my teaching gig at SMTD. I literally grew up in that building, musically and otherwise. I now teach a class that I took as a sophomore 20 years ago, which feels really special. I took a year off from working at The Rose, but I will be back doing sound design for the summer show in 2025. My lovely and magnificently talented fiancé, Hope Shangle, starred in The Antichrist Cometh this season, though, which was super fun.
Q: You first met Patti LuPone in 2014 after a show with Jeff Daniels at 54 Below in New York City. How did you reconnect with her nearly a decade later and join her tour for A Life in Notes earlier this year?
A: Last summer, I got a text from Jeff [Daniels] that simply said, “You need to call me right now. It’s good.” So, of course, I called right away. He told me to sit down and proceeded to say that Patti LuPone had just called him, and she was looking for me because she needed someone who could do what I do for a new show she was putting together.
Come December of last year, I found myself as Patti’s guest in her apartment on the Upper West Side in Manhattan rehearsing every day for a week to scratch the surface of what would eventually become A Life in Notes. It was an extremely collaborative process working with Patti and [music director Joseph Thalken], as well as director Scott Wittman, who is known for his many projects on Broadway and in film and television. It was clear early on that we had found a pretty magical creative supernova with one another. Beyond that, we all got along so well. They’re great people and that matters more than basically anything else.
Q: What have been some of your favorite moments during the tour?
A: One of my favorite moments in the show is a song that I do not perform—it’s just Patti and Joe. I get to sit on stage and watch and listen while those two perform the absolute hell out of “The Man That Got Away,” originally made famous by Judy Garland. That and “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Misérables.
I think, perhaps, the most special song in the show for me is “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita. I worked up an accompaniment arrangement for that song on the octave mandolin and sent it to Patti, Joe, and Scott before we started rehearsing. They loved it and we have kept this arrangement in the show. It’s just Patti and me on that one, and every time we play it, I have an out-of-body experience where my own voice in my head says to me, “Look at what you’re doing right now. Can you believe it?!”
Perhaps the most magical place we have performed was Carnegie Hall back in April. My whole family flew out to New York City to see the show as did my neighbors along with Jeff and Kathleen Daniels. It was such a special night in the timeline of my life.
Q: You’re resuming your tour with LuPone in October. What will the tour be like this fall and where are you headed? Are there any plans to tour with LuPone in 2025 or work on other projects with her?
A: Patti is doing a play on Broadway called The Roommate this fall. It’s a two-hander with Mia Farrow that runs into December, so our schedule lightens up for the rest of the year while she’s in the play. As such, we only have one more show this year on October 4 in Chicago before things pick up again in 2025.
Q: LuPone's A Life in Notes is a double album with 23 tracks that encompass several genres and have deep personal and professional significance to her. What was it like to translate those tracks from the stage to the studio?
A: The recording process ... was pretty incredible actually. By the time we recorded in March, we had a few shows under our belts and dozens of hours of rehearsals. We had two days booked at Power Station to record all 23 songs, but we knocked them all out in one day! A record for both Joe and me at least. We recorded every track live and did only two or three takes of each song before moving on to the next. I think we only stopped once for lunch and did a few overdubs at the end, but it was the most efficient day in the studio of my entire career. It will be hard to top that!
Q: How did your daughter Alyson’s musical journey start?
A: Alyson is a singer and has been since before she could speak. I have recordings of her bopping around the living room as a kid making up tunes and babbling syllables with deep conviction and rhythm.
Aside from playing guitar and singing to her and her little brother at bedtime, Alyson was exposed to a lot of music at a very young age because of my professional life. Most of my friends were high-level, world-class musicians and Alyson was often present for rehearsals and recordings and frequently went to concerts and musical festivals. Now iconic Michigan music artists like May Erlewine, My Dear Disco, Ella Riot, Theo Katzman, Joshua Davis, Joey Dosik, and others were all my college friends at the time. Their music was [playing] in the car constantly, so her musical roots are largely connected to my musical family.
Aside from local friends, Alyson loved the music of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, and other musical icons of the 20th century. She once scolded me for not knowing the title of a Chick Corea track that she was playing in the car when she was in eighth grade!
Q: Alyson will attend the University of North Carolina School of the Arts to study film in the fall. How did Alyson develop a passion for film?
A: Alyson has always been an artist at heart. First, it was singing, followed shortly by dancing, which were both mainstays in her life throughout her youth. It wasn’t until she took a class at Dexter High School in which she was required to shoot a music video for a project.
She chose the song “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron and cast her stepmom Hope [Shangle] and me in the video. She had the whole vision in her mind and was able to communicate her ideas so clearly and directed the shoot with such heart and clarity like she had been doing it her whole life. She fell in love with the process of filmmaking with that project.
It was posted online on my YouTube channel where it was seen by Scott Galeski, the director of the Downriver-Detroit Student Film Consortium. He got in touch with me and asked if he could talk to Alyson about joining the consortium because he was so impressed with her work. Since joining the consortium, Alyson has directed several projects and had short films screened at student film festivals around the world, including the largest student film festival in the world in New York City.
Alyson could not be more excited about her first year. She’s dying to get started and meet “her people.” It’s very exciting to witness her finding and chasing her passion.
Q: What do you and Alyson have planned for your August 8 show at The Ark?
A: A possible subtitle for our show at The Ark could be something like “Songs From the Car Seat” or “Dad’s Bedtime Songs.” We will be playing many of the songs that she heard as a kid—songs that mean something to her or us. Songs that we have sung together and bonded over throughout her life. The band—all of them all-stars—are so graciously helping us bring the songs to life with such energy and beauty. They’re all dear friends of ours.
Q: Your son, Will Phillips, is also a musician. He’s getting ready to release a new video for a metal instrumental called “Goliath” with the band REZIDE. How did Will’s musical journey lead to pursuing his own projects and joining REZIDE?
A: That’s right! Will is a musician, all right! I bought a cheap partscaster from Chris DuPont to have an electric guitar laying around—just in case. I plugged it into an amp in the kitchen one day, turned on a little distortion, and hit a few chords. Will came running over to get a closer look and basically took it out of my hands and immediately started to try to find [Metallica’s] “Master of Puppets” on the neck of the guitar. Less than two years later, he’s an absolute shredder! He’s a metal maniac. Not only that, he builds and customizes his own guitars. He has more guitars than I do at this point, and I love it so much!
His music video for his original instrumental metal track “Goliath” will debut at the Downriver Detroit Student Film Consortium premiere this September. Watch out world—REZIDE is gonna melt your faces!
Q: What’s up next for you later this year? Do you have any plans to write, record, and release new material—either solo or in collaboration with other artists and acts?
A: I’ve got a new single coming out soon, as well as a stripped-back mix of my single from last year, “Dance Again.” The working title of the new song is “Amazing Grace Tonight.” I wrote it in honor of all the lonely people in isolation during the pandemic. It’s three snapshots of fictional characters all dealing with a lack of connection and distance from loved ones during that wild time. I’ll be playing both of those songs at The Ark on August 8.
Lori Stratton is a library technician, writer for Pulp, and writer and editor of strattonsetlist.com.
Brad Phillips and Alyson Phillips perform August 8 with Hudson North at The Ark, 316 S. Main Street in Ann Arbor. For tickets, visit The Ark’s website.