A keen spirituality has always flowed through the impeccable songwriting and vocals of eclectic female indiesinger-songwriter Sam Phillips, even nearly three decades after the end of her impressive early-'80s career as a Christian pop artist. However, in many ways this tune - written and originally recorded in 1986 by future husband and eventual long-term collaborator T-Bone Burnett - represents her clear transition from niche artist to world-class original.


So why do I choose Phillips' version rather than Burnett's to spotlight here? Easy answer: Phillips was and is one of the finest female singers alive. This is mesmerizing, guitar-based acoustic folk-pop - of which Phillips would produce plenty more during the next two decades - but the best thing about her as an artist is that she never repeats herself. "River of Love" sounds like it's been a roots rock standard for the past 50 years if not longer, and such staying power stems directly from the impact of the unique Phillips-Burnett artistry. If the Christian music industry had not tried so hard to pigeonhole Phillips by engineering her image, perhaps the mainstream music world would have had the opportunity to enjoy her genius for far longer. Then again, she's far from the first artist (or the last) to be unjustly ignored by pop radio.

Over the past two decades-plus, Phillips has produced some stunning baroque pop, guitar rock, and alternative rock music, mostly distinguished by her own sturdy, independent songwriting voice.

Personal LP favorites like 1994's Martinis & Bikinis and 2001's The Fan Dance feature some fantastic Phillips originals like "Baby, I Can't Please You,""When I Fall,""I Need Love,""Edge of the World" and "Five Colors." I could wax poetic about them indefinitely, but I digress. The topic today is, after all, that 1986 gem, "River of Love." Lyrically speaking, this is prophetic, simplistically hard-hitting stuff. Musically, it's primal and unflinching. And when you throw Phillips' voice over the top of it all, I contend that the result is one of the most shattering acoustic roots pop songs of the '80s.

For much of her career following the quiet release of this tune almost 30 years ago, Phillips and Burnett have been inextricably tied together both professionally and personally. That sense of collaboration here is so complete that this tune almost feels like the work of one single artist. Ultimately, Burnett's lyrics perfectly sum up the eternally conflicting joy and suffering of human existence, and the song as a result quickly begins to change the listener's life as soon as it's first experienced: "There's a river of love that runs through all time/But there's a river of fire that burns with no light./The flame is the pain of dreams gone up in smoke/From the lies we deny and breathe until we choke." It's hard to believe this kind of song belongs to a decade at all even in the limiting sense of the calendar. But the fact that it's an '80s track shouldn't be lost on folks complaining about lack of substance within that decade's artificial musical boundaries.