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U. Utah Phillips Has Passed Away
Utah's Web site has just posted an update and link, so the news is confirmed:
http://www.utahphillips.com
http://www.kvmr.org/utah_letter.html
The Utah Phillips website is worth spending some time on, including blogs, music and photos of and about this wonderful man. He will be greatly missed.
The KVMR link includes one of Utah's last letters and updates.
http://www.utahphillips.com
http://www.kvmr.org/utah_letter.html
The Utah Phillips website is worth spending some time on, including blogs, music and photos of and about this wonderful man. He will be greatly missed.
The KVMR link includes one of Utah's last letters and updates.
![utah.jpg](/uploads/2008/05/24/utah.jpg)
Here is what Wikipedia ( http://www.wikipedia.org ) has to say about Utah:
Bruce "Utah" Phillips served in the United States Army for three years beginning in 1956. Witnessing the devastation of post-war Korea greatly influenced his social and political thinking. Following service, he returned to Salt Lake City, Utah and joined Ammon Hennacy from the Catholic Worker Movement in establishing a mission house of hospitality named after the activist Joe Hill.[2] [3]Phillips worked at the Joe Hill House for the next eight years, then ran for the U.S. Senate as a candidate of Utah's Peace and Freedom Party in 1968. He received 2,019 votes (0.5%) in an election won by Republican Wallace F. Bennett.
Phillips met folk singer Rosalie Sorrels in the early 1950s, and has remained a close friend of hers ever since. It was Sorrels who started playing the songs that Phillips wrote, and through her his music began to spread. After leaving Utah in the late '60s, he went to Saratoga Springs, New York, where he was befriended by the folk community at the Caffé Lena coffee house, where he became a staple performer throughout that decade.
An avid railfan, Phillips has recorded several albums of music related to the railroads, especially the era of steam locomotives. His first recorded album, Good Though!, is an example, and contains such songs as "Daddy, What's a Train?" and "Queen of the Rails" as well as what may be his most famous composition, "Moose Turd Pie" [4]wherein he tells a tall tale of his work as a gandy dancer repairing track in the Southwestern United States desert.
In 1991 Phillips recorded, in one take, an album of song, poetry and short stories entitled I've Got To Know, inspired by his anger at the first Gulf War. The album includes "Enola Gay," his first composition written about the United States' atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Phillips was a mentor to Kate Wolf. He has recorded songs and stories with Rosalie Sorrels on a CD called The Long Memory (1996), originally a college project from Montana. Ani DiFranco has recorded two CDs, The Past Didn't Go Anywhere (1996) and Fellow Workers (1999), with him. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his work with Ani DiFranco. His "Green Rolling Hills" was made into a country hit by Emmylou Harris, and "The Goodnight-Loving Trail" has become a classic as well, being recorded by Ian Tyson, Tom Waits, and others.
Phillips has become an elder statesman for the folk music community, and a keeper of stories and songs that might otherwise have passed into obscurity. He is also a member of the great Traveling Nation, the community of hobos and railroad bums that populates the midwest United States along the rail lines, and is an important keeper of their history and culture.
When Kate Wolf grew ill and was forced to cancel concerts, she asked Phillips to fill in. Suffering from an ailment which makes it more difficult to play guitar, Phillips hesitated, citing his declining guitar ability. "Nobody ever came just to hear you play," she said. Phillips tells this story as a way of explaining how his style over the years has become increasingly based on storytelling instead of just songs. He is a gifted storyteller and monologist, and his concerts generally have an even mix of spoken word and sung content. He attributes much of his success to his personality. "It is better to be likeable than talented," he often says, self-deprecatingly.
Until it lost its funding, Phillips hosted his own weekly radio show, Loafer's Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind.
In August 2007, Phillips announced that he would undergo catheter ablation to address his heart problems.[5] Later that autumn Phillips announced that due to health problems he could no longer tour.[6]
Phillips died on May 23, 2008 in Nevada City, California, of complications of heart disease. [1]
Bruce "Utah" Phillips served in the United States Army for three years beginning in 1956. Witnessing the devastation of post-war Korea greatly influenced his social and political thinking. Following service, he returned to Salt Lake City, Utah and joined Ammon Hennacy from the Catholic Worker Movement in establishing a mission house of hospitality named after the activist Joe Hill.[2] [3]Phillips worked at the Joe Hill House for the next eight years, then ran for the U.S. Senate as a candidate of Utah's Peace and Freedom Party in 1968. He received 2,019 votes (0.5%) in an election won by Republican Wallace F. Bennett.
Phillips met folk singer Rosalie Sorrels in the early 1950s, and has remained a close friend of hers ever since. It was Sorrels who started playing the songs that Phillips wrote, and through her his music began to spread. After leaving Utah in the late '60s, he went to Saratoga Springs, New York, where he was befriended by the folk community at the Caffé Lena coffee house, where he became a staple performer throughout that decade.
An avid railfan, Phillips has recorded several albums of music related to the railroads, especially the era of steam locomotives. His first recorded album, Good Though!, is an example, and contains such songs as "Daddy, What's a Train?" and "Queen of the Rails" as well as what may be his most famous composition, "Moose Turd Pie" [4]wherein he tells a tall tale of his work as a gandy dancer repairing track in the Southwestern United States desert.
In 1991 Phillips recorded, in one take, an album of song, poetry and short stories entitled I've Got To Know, inspired by his anger at the first Gulf War. The album includes "Enola Gay," his first composition written about the United States' atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Phillips was a mentor to Kate Wolf. He has recorded songs and stories with Rosalie Sorrels on a CD called The Long Memory (1996), originally a college project from Montana. Ani DiFranco has recorded two CDs, The Past Didn't Go Anywhere (1996) and Fellow Workers (1999), with him. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his work with Ani DiFranco. His "Green Rolling Hills" was made into a country hit by Emmylou Harris, and "The Goodnight-Loving Trail" has become a classic as well, being recorded by Ian Tyson, Tom Waits, and others.
Phillips has become an elder statesman for the folk music community, and a keeper of stories and songs that might otherwise have passed into obscurity. He is also a member of the great Traveling Nation, the community of hobos and railroad bums that populates the midwest United States along the rail lines, and is an important keeper of their history and culture.
When Kate Wolf grew ill and was forced to cancel concerts, she asked Phillips to fill in. Suffering from an ailment which makes it more difficult to play guitar, Phillips hesitated, citing his declining guitar ability. "Nobody ever came just to hear you play," she said. Phillips tells this story as a way of explaining how his style over the years has become increasingly based on storytelling instead of just songs. He is a gifted storyteller and monologist, and his concerts generally have an even mix of spoken word and sung content. He attributes much of his success to his personality. "It is better to be likeable than talented," he often says, self-deprecatingly.
Until it lost its funding, Phillips hosted his own weekly radio show, Loafer's Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind.
In August 2007, Phillips announced that he would undergo catheter ablation to address his heart problems.[5] Later that autumn Phillips announced that due to health problems he could no longer tour.[6]
Phillips died on May 23, 2008 in Nevada City, California, of complications of heart disease. [1]
For more information:
http://utahphillips.org/
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Long time anarchist and member/supporter of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Utah P. will be missed. He gave a lot to our movement through his music and actions, hopefully we can carry the torch.
This is really sad news-- but not unexpected. Phillips had been very ill.
Will his passing make the evening news?
I hope at least KPFA and other radio stations not yet completely taken over by the corporate system will devote some prime time to remembering him.
Time will show that he ranks among the very greatest of American songwriters in the American Folk tradition.
His song Trooper's Lament has lyrics with a sting equal to, or better, than the words of some of Kipling's poems.
Many other songs of his are notable-- a favorite: I will Not Obey.
Will his passing make the evening news?
I hope at least KPFA and other radio stations not yet completely taken over by the corporate system will devote some prime time to remembering him.
Time will show that he ranks among the very greatest of American songwriters in the American Folk tradition.
His song Trooper's Lament has lyrics with a sting equal to, or better, than the words of some of Kipling's poems.
Many other songs of his are notable-- a favorite: I will Not Obey.
![utah_12-10-04.jpg](/uploads/2008/05/24/utah_12-10-04.jpg)
"In response to the FCC raiding Free Radio Santa Cruz on 9/29/04, Utah Phillips called up FRSC with the idea of a benefit concert to help get our pirate station sailing the airwaves again. Many people throughout the Santa Cruz area donated their time and resources to organize a fantastic musical benefit on December 10, 2004."
For more information:
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/di...
"Utah Phillips and Amy Goodman sailed the airwaves of Free Radio Santa Cruz on Saturday, Januaray 17, 2004. Utah Phillips and Amy Goodman met for the first time, and it happened in the illegal pirate radio studio operated by Free Radio Santa Cruz 96.3fm, 101.1fm, and FreakRadio.org."
Author: FRSC/Democracy Now
Mp3 audio 51:13 Amy Goodman Interviews Utah Phillips on FRSC LIVE 01-17-04
"Amy Goodman Interviews U Utah Phillips before his performance LIVE on Free or Freak Radio Santa Cruz 96.3 or 101fm UNLICENSED microradio community radio broadcasting in Santa Cruz Califorina for nearly a decade"
mp3:
http://radio.indymedia.org/sites/radio.indymedia.org/files/amy_utah_frsc.mp3
Author: FRSC/Democracy Now
Mp3 audio 51:13 Amy Goodman Interviews Utah Phillips on FRSC LIVE 01-17-04
"Amy Goodman Interviews U Utah Phillips before his performance LIVE on Free or Freak Radio Santa Cruz 96.3 or 101fm UNLICENSED microradio community radio broadcasting in Santa Cruz Califorina for nearly a decade"
mp3:
http://radio.indymedia.org/sites/radio.indymedia.org/files/amy_utah_frsc.mp3
For more information:
http://radio.indymedia.org/en/node/1359
He was no greater an american than many of you are. Thanks for that. Thanks especially for those in your ranks who survive him because of him.
To hear Utah tell the stories of the strikes and the free speech fights, recounting hilariously the day-to-day tribulations of life in the hobo jungles and logging camps, singing about the humanity of historical figures such as Big Bill Haywood, Joe Hill or Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, was to bring alive an era that at that point only seemed to exist on paper, not in the reality of the senses. But Utah didn't feel like someone who was just telling stories from a bygone era -- it was more like he was a bridge to that era.
continue reading...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/25/18502152.php
continue reading...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/25/18502152.php
A Salt Lake Tribune interview with Utah Phillips from 2005
During the 22 years Bruce "U. Utah" Phillips lived in Utah, between the ages of 12 and 34, he learned the art of storytelling from a Mormon elder, learned American Indian songs from a Catholic priest, ran away from home to ride the rails with hobos and tramps, worked as a state historical archivist and ran for the U.S. Senate on the Peace and Freedom ticket.
Then Phillips' life got really interesting.
The man best known as Utah Phillips went on to become a legend in folk-music circles, a performer who combines long narratives about labor heroes and tramps with singalongs and odes to the country he's traveled from coast to coast by driving, hitchhiking or riding the rails. The entire time, his music career has been strongly linked to his life as a progressive activist, whether working with pro-peace groups or his beloved International Workers of the World. You know, the "Wobblies."
continue reading...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/25/18502157.php
During the 22 years Bruce "U. Utah" Phillips lived in Utah, between the ages of 12 and 34, he learned the art of storytelling from a Mormon elder, learned American Indian songs from a Catholic priest, ran away from home to ride the rails with hobos and tramps, worked as a state historical archivist and ran for the U.S. Senate on the Peace and Freedom ticket.
Then Phillips' life got really interesting.
The man best known as Utah Phillips went on to become a legend in folk-music circles, a performer who combines long narratives about labor heroes and tramps with singalongs and odes to the country he's traveled from coast to coast by driving, hitchhiking or riding the rails. The entire time, his music career has been strongly linked to his life as a progressive activist, whether working with pro-peace groups or his beloved International Workers of the World. You know, the "Wobblies."
continue reading...
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/05/25/18502157.php
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