Morning Edition; David Phelps

It's morning edition on 89.9K RPS, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro. This Sunday night, as part of Connect to Culture's Curtains Up series, singer-songwriter David Philips returns to Southwest Missouri to perform at Joplin High School's Performing Arts Center. The It Must Be Christmas tour includes stops in Indiana and Tennessee before reaching Joplin. I spoke with David out on the road on Tuesday morning. I first asked him to tell us about the tour and what he will be performing in Joplin on Sunday night. Yeah, it's our 21st annual Christmas tour. We have been doing this for quite a while now and we love it all year long. We play non-seasonal music and then, when Thanksgiving hits, it's Christmas all the time until the season is over with and so we travel all over the country and we do these concerts that are a lot of it is these great standards that we all love. We all love the same Christmas songs and then we also add some new things every year that it helps tell the story.

David Trammels and performs extensively throughout the U.S. and it has for years. He released his first solo record in 1994. His latest. It must be Christmas. It's now his 13th. He's been able to continue to produce hints and tour with the support of his wife and three kids. Well, you know, that's been something that we had to face that on since the beginning of this whole journey that we've been on. I have a wonderful wife that helps me and, you know, at all because of our kids' ages and everything. We just have to make sure that that remains a priority and if things get kind of out of whack, we sit down and we figure out how to pull them back in. It definitely is a team effort. And as it's told that we're doing, I mean, my wife just, I've always been very involved in this and we have family on the road with us that plays in the band and it's definitely not something that I take care of by myself. When you watch David perform, which you can see at his website, DavidFilps.com, he clearly

has control of the stage and a presence that is difficult to match. He is well known as a Christian singer-songwriter. That many of his musical influences aren't. Definitely are. I mean, we're all a compositive of our influences, for sure. And I always, I guess my biggest, I was very eclectic growing up. Everyone from poverty to bullied in it, who I love. And then groups like Journey and Queen as well, they influenced me a whole lot. So yeah, I am definitely a compositive of all those great iconic artists. After a nearly 20-year-run performing with a gathering vocal band, in March of 2017, Filps announced that he would believe in the group and that he would tour independently. He described being part of a band as something you could step in and out of. While touring on his own comes with more responsibility and freedom.

When I was traveling with the gay group, it's really, on a lot of level, a job that you step into and you just kind of do your small part and step out of. And there's not as near as much responsibility as a solo artist, you're guiding the ship in every aspect. There's the business side of things. There's the artistic side of things. You've got to make sure that you're communicating the idea on stage every night and making sure that everybody is on the same track as far as the band is concerned. And so it is a much more detailed and in-depth process to be an artist in your own right. I spoke with singer-songwriter David Filps on Tuesday morning. He will perform his, It Must Be Christmas Show. As part of Connect to Cultures, Curtin's Up Series, this Sunday night at Joplin High School's Performing on Center, starts at 7.30. For more information, including how to purchase tickets.

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