Todd Phillips?

[Charles E.]

What ever happend to Todd Phillips?
We recently got a three CD collection of the DGQ and after looking at the liner notes it occured to me that most of the musicians that played in the early days, ie Tony Rice, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, etc, have gone on to other musical paths but always on the radar.
At the beginning of the first CD, David introduces Todd and says " Todd Phillips on mandolin, he built that mandolin so he is responsable for that sound." Is Todd still around? Did he build a lot of mandolins?
Just curious.

[djweiss]

Todd switched from mando to bass during his tenure with the DGQ, and maintains a very established reputation in the bluegrass/newgrass crowd as a bass layer. He's collaborated with David Grier and Matt Flinner among others.

[sunburst]

Todd is a "go to guy" as a bass player and one of my favorites.
I met him a... few years ago and at the time I had a mandolin that I made that was almost exactly like the one he made and played with Grisman. As far as I know, he didn't make many mandolins.

[SternART]

Todd's shop was in the back of my art studio......he only built a few exquisite mandolins & did a lot of repair & setup work too. This was all before he switched to bass in the DGQ when Mike Marshall came on board.

Lets see other bands he is still in or has been in........the Bluegrass Album Band, Montrose, The Tony Rice Unit, Psychograss, Flinner, Grier & Phillips, The Laurie Lewis Band.......I think he has been touring with Joan Baez lately too. Todd also does a lot of studio work. Won a grammy even! Really nice fella and he knows exactly where to put the beat & make it swing when he wants to.

[sunburst]

Lets see other bands he is still in or has been in........the Bluegrass Album Band, Montrose, The Tony Rice Unit, Psychograss, Flinner, Grier & Phillips, The Laurie Lewis Band.......I think he has been touring with Joan Baez lately too.

The Good ol' Persons...

[SternART]

The Good ol' Persons...

I'm pretty sure they had a few different woman on bass....wasn't one Bethany Raine? .....but then again I wouldn't be surprised if Todd played a stint with them back in he day.....

[sunburst]

Yep, Bethany for one, but I saw them with Todd playing and it was a great show! (John Reichman on mando.)

[Spruce]

The Todd-on-mando era of the DGQ was the most powerful acoustic band I've ever experienced...

Nothing--including all the subsequent versions of the Quintet--even comes close....

[Philippe Bony]

Solo project In The Pines (http://www.answers.com/topic/in-the-pines-1995-album-by-todd-phillips-1)
Some fun if you read the credits (double bass, contrabass, etc.)
:)

[AlanN]

Yep, he filled in on bass with the GOP (yikes...), as I caught them at Salem County Fairgrounds NJ festival, must have been 1997 or so. This was when I found a pick on the ground that I still use today.

Agree with Spruce about the original DGQ. One reason I think those first two records were so great was because it was so new back then, one-of-a-kind stuff. I remember scouring the tunes on the first record, looking for Todd mando solos. Could only find one pure solo by him, on Dawg's Rag. He ensemble played on the triple mando opus Ricochet, written by R. Somers, but for solos, think that was it, except for rhythm.

[Charles E.]

Thanks all, I did Google him but did not come up with any thing newer then about ten years old. That first couple of albums really stand the test of time.

[jefflester]

Todd also played bass in Newgrange, the newgrass supergroup with Anger/Marshall, Tim O'Brien, and Alison Brown.

And that famous bluegrass pianer player Philip Aaberg. :grin:

[jefflester]

page 2 of credits from allmusic.com (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gpfexqw5ldje~2~T40B) (there's a page 1 of older stuff too)

[MandoJump]

Saw Todd at RockyGrass 2008, he was an academy instructor on the bass, and played with PsychoGrass during the festival. It was psycho indeed, but amazing nonetheless.

[man dough nollij]

Todd also played bass in Newgrange, the newgrass supergroup with Anger/Marshall, Tim O'Brien, and Alison Brown.

And that famous bluegrass pianer player Philip Aaberg. :grin:

You beat me to it. That is a great album.

[Mandoe]

Good mando album by Todd many years ago called "Released". I remember really liking it. Anybody got this?

[T Foster]

I was in the mandolin class where he and david first met in Sausalito in the fall of 1975. He was/is a great guy, and gave me a lift after the class to the bus station in S.F.

[Tbone]

Yep, he filled in on bass with the GOP (yikes...),

Todd played bass with the republican party?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Definately my favorite bass player. Does he still play much mando? If he was the second mando for the dawg, he can't be a slouch!

[Mike Herlihy]

There was a great article about DGQ in the Fretboard Journal. Todd took a class from David Grisman and David tapped him to play rhythm.

[Glassweb]

The Todd-on-mando era of the DGQ was the most powerful acoustic band I've ever experienced...

Nothing--including all the subsequent versions of the Quintet--even comes close....

I'm with you Spruce... all cylinders were on fire at that point in time...