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An Alternate Route (To Your Heart)

from At Home At Sea by E.G. Phillips

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about

This song first premiered on Glide Magazine which said "Phillips has a quiet, loping vocal delivery that feels relaxed and confessional, playing the role of lounge crooner meets street busker."

I had in mind the Tony Bennett and Bill Evans collaborations when I wrote ‘An Alternate Route’ — which is why we decided to go with the piano trio, with producer Ben Osheroff on the keys. There’s also a bit of a nod to my past life as a Geographer as well to the jazz standard ‘Detour Ahead’, which Evans famously covered on the Village Vanguard sessions.

It’s one of those cases where the song, at least for me, is really all about the bridge. This one’s a winding beast that backtracks and goes off in different directions — never settling on a harmonic progression that repeats, only going further afield, as do the lyrics. The ending was serendipitous— its dissonance owing more to misplaced fingers on my part when I was composing than to any sort of theory.

Within the context of ‘At Home At Sea,’ I feel like this one walks the line between the darker and lighter takes on attachment — resolute and hopeful yet also sober if not already a bit resigned. From my perspective, it’s sort of an older song, but one that absolutely had to be part of this collection for thematic as well as sentimental reasons.

lyrics

All the signs I can read
Say the entrance ramp is closed
There’s no way onto the expressway
From here
It looks like I’ll have to take
The long way around
I’ll have to find An Alternate Route
To Your Heart

Now I’m parked on the shoulder
I’m all stalled out
Trying to fix a flat in the dark
As other cars speed past
Even if I get back on the road
I’m not sure I can switch gears
So I can take that Alternate Route
To Your Heart

Maybe I’ll get good and lost
And lose my way
Maybe it’s a destination
I’ll never quite reach
Maybe it’s as elusive as
Brigadoon or Shangri-La
Maybe it’s as guarded as
The gates of paradise

But I’m sure it’s a place that exists
In one form or another
And I believe to my bones
It’s where I’m meant to be
Oh, how do you reach into my being
So effortlessly?
And yet we’re so distant
No matter how near we are?

Once I finally get moving again
I’ll keep plugging away
I don’t care about the mileage
Or going off map
I’ll follow the stars in the heavens
Hoping they’ll guide me
Through the Odyssey of an Alternate Route
To Your Heart

credits

from At Home At Sea, released July 12, 2019
E.G. Phillips (Vocals), Eve Fleishman (Backing Vocals),
Ben Osheroff (Piano), Sean Silverman (Upright Bass),
Ben Visini (Drum Kit)

produced, recorded and mixed by Ben Osheroff
mastered by Matt Boudreau, Working Class Audio
songs and artwork by E.G. Phillips (ASCAP)
published by Ducks With Pants Music (@duckswithpants)

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E.G. Phillips San Francisco, California

E.G. Phillips is a San Francisco based songwriter who creates lyric driven songs with his own special blend of whimsy and cinematic imagery which he uses to give a wry take on dealing with the longings of the heart and the madness of existence.

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