New York Times
Julie Salamon
January 23, 2004

Heeding at Last the Song Itself

Mr. Roy produced his second album, ''Issues and Options,'' on his own again, but this time the CD was picked up by a small distributor called Or Music. He began playing the club circuit, sometimes in obscure spots, but also in New York at influential places: Makor, the Bottom Line, Joe's Pub.

The man who booked him to play the community room in West New York on New Year's Eve was a fan who had come to several of Mr. Roy's New York shows. When Mr. Roy arrived that evening, seven people, whose ages ranged from 40 to 82, were waiting in the room, which was decorated with a few Happy New Year banners. ''I was disillusioned,'' said Mr. Roy. ''The New York Times had just recommended my album, I was booked in Lincoln Center and here I was in a basement with seven people.'' As he began his first song his nose began to bleed, which had never happened to him before. ''I was so upset I was having a physical reaction,'' he said. He composed himself in the bathroom and then returned to try again.

At first, he said, he closed his eyes and pretended he was already singing at Lincoln Center. But then he looked at his audience. There was an Iranian woman in her 40's wearing a diamond bracelet and necklace and an 82-year-old woman who ran upstairs to her apartment to get Mr. Roy a battery for his microphone. He stepped down from the makeshift stage and walked over to sing next to their table. A few more people wandered in, bringing the crowd to about a dozen. After Mr. Roy finished, there was food and conversation. He met a woman whose mother was a friend of Rosa Parks, and talked to people from Somalia, and the Iranian woman, who said her grandmother had been a princess under one of the shahs.

''I was so sad when I first got there,'' Mr. Roy said. ''But as I went through the night and sang my songs and got to know this group of people, it was like: You now what? New Year's Eve, 2004? Cool.''

The next day Mr. Roy called Heitor Pereira, the accomplished Brazilian guitarist, a friend and collaborator, who had toured with the popular band Simply Red. After listening to Mr. Roy's story, Mr. Pereira told him, ''I used to play in front of thousands of people, and I met no one. You had the chance to connect with people.''

Mr. Roy said he had come to appreciate the strange poetry of his current life, epitomized by these very different bookings on separate sides of the Hudson. Otherwise, he said, ''It's like writing for Ray Charles and Pop Staples and these American treasures and it not being good enough. But it has to be.''

On His Own.

The singer and songwriter Phil Roy will appear tomorrow night at 8 at the Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Lincoln Center.

Tickets are $45 and available at the Alice Tully Hall box office through CenterCharge, (212) 721-6500, or online at www.lincolncenter.org.

Mr. Roy's CD's ''grouchyfriendly'' and ''Issues and Options'' (Or Music) are available in music stores, through Internet outlets and at www.philroy.com.

Back