Sam Phillips started out as a big-haired Christian pop star in the mid-1980s, recording under her given name, Leslie Phillips. Her producer/future-husband T-Bone Burnett worked on her final Christian album in '87 and influenced her move towards a secular style. Re-christening herself "Sam," she starting turning out a series of quirky, stylish singer/songwriter albums, partly influenced by '60s baroque-pop sounds. Over time, her vision grew ever more appealingly idiosyncratic, but she reached her widest audience as the composer/performer of all the soundtrack music for popular TV show THE GILMORE GIRLS from 2000 to 2007.