Sam Phillips

You don’t have to listen hard to the new album by Sam Phillips to hear what seem like references to her recent divorce from roots-music maestro T Bone Burnett. “I thought if he understood he wouldn’t treat me this way,” Phillips sings in the CD’s opener, “No Explanations”; later, in “Another Song,” she admits, “Everything used to make me smile / Then you went away / Did you ever love me?” But in fact, Don’t Do Anything offers a plainer indication of the singer-songwriter’s marital status right on the package: “Produced by Sam Phillips,” it reads—a first in her career, following eight albums helmed by Burnett. Phillips fills the role masterfully here, adorning her romantic confessions with a painter’s palette of avant-folk details: Gypsy-troupe strings, creep-show organ and, on “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us,” underwater marching-band grooves. Bewitching.

Sam Phillips plays Borders Columbus Circle Jun 6.