one of the great storytellers and rabble rousers has left this mortal coil. i was exposed to utah via his collaborations with FOA ani difranco. i wish i’d known of his work earlier so that i had the opportunity to see him spin a yarn live. but it wasn’t meant to be. in the last few years utah had been plagued by health issues. but at least we have some great videos and recordings of him… his legacy was great, and he’ll be missed.
what an amazing, interesting life he led:
Folk singer, anarchist, social reformer and man of the people Bruce “Utah” Phillips died in his Nevada City home Friday night of congestive heart failure.
Phillips, 73, was beloved on two continents for his big heart, along with his wit, wisdom, wild, white beard and willingness to stand tall for his beliefs.
He ran for president but never voted. Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Tom Waits and his friend Arlo Guthrie all sing Utah Phillips songs, but he refused to let Johnny Cash make an album of his standards, his eldest son said, because he didn’t trust the record industry.
Phillips, a onetime hobo and railroad tramp, reached out to the homeless in Nevada County in 2005, when he and his wife, Joanna Robinson, created a rotating homeless shelter at area churches.
“They’re housing 25 to 30 people every night,” said longtime friend Jordan Fisher Smith. “Instead of asking the government to do it, they solicited the help of their friends and neighbors and local churches and just created services for these people that weren’t there.
“Bruce at his core was an anarchist,” said Smith, who befriended him 20 years ago when he moved to Nevada City. “The name ‘Utah’ stuck because he’d lived in Utah, riding freights in the West.”
In “All Used Up,” Phillips sings of a boss who “used up my labor, he used up my time, he plundered my body and squandered my mind. Then he gave me a pension, some handouts and wine,
And told me I’m all used up…
“They use up the oil, they use up the trees
They use up the air and they use up the seas
But as long as I’m breathing they won’t use up me
Don’t tell me I’m all used up.”
The son of labor organizers, Phillips was a lifelong member of the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies, Smith said.
He served in the Korean War, then came home devastated by the misery he’d seen and began drinking and drifting.
In the late ’50s, broke and broken-hearted, Phillips rolled into Salt Lake City on a freight train and ended up at the Joe Hill House, a homeless shelter run by anarchist Ammon Hennacy.
He helped out at Joe Hill House and became a pacifist and a performer influenced by folk legends Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, country stars Hank Williams, T. Texas Tyler, comic Myron Cohen and novelist Thomas Wolfe, Smith said.
Phillips ran for U.S. Senate on the Peace and Freedom Ticket in 1968 and lost, then left Utah for Saratoga Springs and became a fixture at the Caffe Lena.
“our bodies are our votes”
“non violence is a practical neccessity”
“bridges” <—- with music by ani.
“there is power in the union”
here is an interview with utah from february 11 of this year. there are quite a few wonderful tributes popping up across the web, including here, here, and here, among many others. Utah also had a blog run by his son here. There’s a very long entry posted which seems to be Utah’s last missive to friends and family.
if you would like to honor utah’s memory:
Remembrances: Services have not been set. The family requests memorial donations to the homeless shelter Phillips helped create, Hospitality House, P.O. Box 3223, Grass Valley, CA 95945, (530) 271-7144.
