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Phil Sampson is arguably one
of Oklahoma's finest singer songwriters.
Phil grew up in the Chickasha area before settling in Lawton after
college with his wife Susan. In the late '60s he played the folk coffee
house circuit from Lawton to Weatherford and other college towns.
In 1971 Phil went to California with a notebook full of songs to visit
his old friend Rudy Ramos. Rudy was playing the character of "Wind" in
the TV show "High Chaparral." Rudy also recorded a rock album "Hard
Knocks and Bad Times" that featured six of Phil's songs. Shortly after
the album's less then spectacular release in June of 1972 Phil returned
to Oklahoma to begin again.
Phil soon started playing at a new bar in Medicine Park run by a few
recently discharged Vietnam Vets called the "Prancing Pony." Out of this
hole in the wall came the great band, the "Medicine Park All Boy
Derelict Band" and many of Phil's great songs. This band consisted of :
Phil on vocals and rhythm guitar, Mark Paden on vocals and lead guitar,
Bill Russell on vocals, auto harp, and guitar, Steve Grunder on vocals
and bass, Mike McCarty on vocals and drums, and rounding out with Lewis
"Rug" Eckert on blues harp, vocals, comedy and general mayhem! This band
with some substitutions played through most of the 1970s, appearing
occasionally as Boswell and the Bush Pilots (Grunder and McCarty left to
play with Blue Rose Cafe from 1975-'77). |
In 1981 while Mark Paden was in Nashville
writing and trying to promote his own songs he ended up getting Phil his
biggest break by including one of Phil's songs, "I Loved Them Everyone,"
on the tale end of one of Mark's demo tapes. This song became a
multimillion seller forcountry star, T. G. Shepard. Now the rest of the
country knew what all the "Medicine Park" fans had known for years; Phil
Sampson (and for that matter, Mark Paden) turned out some phenomenally
great songs. Phil tried being a staff writer in Nashville for awhile,
but it didn't really suit his style and he soon returned home to
Oklahoma and his family.
Phil continued writing and performing back home while raising his
family. In the mid-1990s, his friend Roland White of the Nashville
Bluegrass Band included Phil's "I Ain't Goin' Down" on their Grammy
Award winning album,"Waitin' For The Hard Times To Go."
This stock pile of great songs was recorded between 1995-1998. The
Medicine Park All Boy Derelict Band's reunion album "Highway 49
Revisited" was released in 1993 that featured fifteen more of Phil's
classic tunes.
Phil still plays regularly as a duo with his long time friend, Lex
Hazlewood at the Winery of the Wichitas.
Phil also is owner of Phil’s Guitar Shop in Lawton, Oklahoma.
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Meers, OK
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