Update on Utah Phillips

[hippywife]

I got this from the Woody Guthrie Festival Message Board. I'd imagine he would still need financial assistance with the hospital bills to date and the ones possibly to come:





This message came from the Folk Alliance Western Region mailing list, by way of Bruce Hayden.

From: Steve Baker
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2008 5:31 PM
Subject: Utah Phillips Won’t Get Heart Transplant

Folksinger/storyteller/activist U. Utah Phillips announced in a courageous, consciously honest statement aired Friday on KVMR that he will not undergo a transplant for his ailing heart.

“My body — given the risks and my age — won’t do a transplant… period,” he said. “I know the way this is working is that I won’t live as long as I would if I had a heart transplant, but, believe me, it’s for the best.”

The legendary performer has been at Sierra Pacific Hospital in San Francisco for the past week. He’s faced a variety of health challenges in recent weeks and months, and his health has been of great concern to his fans, the folk music community, labor union comrades and activists of many stripes.

The decision to forego a transplant was made Wednesday, according to Utah’s podcast that was recorded Thursday night. He was still hopeful of leaving the hospital in a couple days.

“Yesterday (Wednesday) was a day of extreme honesty with myself,” said Utah. “And the time I’m going to go home and have is my time. And I’ll try to use it as well as I can. I have songs in me and stories in me.

I’m not done yet, so stick with me.”

The “Golden Voice of the Great Southwest” says he’s looking forward to getting home, where he’ll work on a book with wife Joanna Robinson and “anything I can do on the phone” for Hospitality House, the Peace Center of Nevada County and other causes close to him.

Phillips has had heart problems for over a dozen years but worked on his health to continue to do a limited touring schedule — until last summer when his condition forced him to retire from the road entirely.

To hear Utah explain his condition in his own voice via podcast (11/7 edition): http://utahphillips.org/podcast/index.html

For an update on his condition from his son, Duncan, and to leave a good well wish or comment:
http://utahphillips.blogspot.com

To send him a get well wish via mail: Utah Phillips, PO Box 1235, Nevada City CA 95959

[ulysses]

1. thank you for this.

Very, very sorry to hear it.

[hippywife]

2. It is sad, but ya know

he's one of the very few who's had the guts to live life on his own terms and never back down and never let up. Gotta admire him for that.

I've had this in my photobucket for some time now and I love it:




“Kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don’t have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that. That’s why I sing these songs. That’s why I tell these stories, dammit. No root, no fruit!”

Utah videos:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=utah+phillips&search_type=

[HERVEPA]

3. Thanks for the information

I've been listening to him for more than thirty years. I hope he can hang in for a while.
I used two of his songs as lullabies for my now adult kids.

"I Remember Loving You" and, probably inappropriately, "Hallelujah I'm a Bum"

[hippywife]

4. That's wonderful.

We need to make sure that those who come after us never forget those who have made a difference, nor take for granted their sacrifices.

[Ptah]

5. Thanks for the news and links.

:grouphug:

[Redstone]

6. Damn, Bruce, you can't leave us until you've had one more helping of Moose Turd Pie.

You just can't.

Redstone

[Shine]

7. I love that song!! I was thinking of that very same song when I read the OP

:hi:

[Redstone]

9. Good, though.

Redstone

[Shine]

13. LOL!

exactly. :D

[Shine]

8. Thanks for the news, hippywife

:hug: :loveya:

Moose Turd Pie.....:9

[hippywife]

10. PM to you, sweetie.

:loveya:

[DaDooRonRon]

11. Utah Phllips and Rosalie Sorrels at a CT coffehouse a long long time ago

I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I remember singing that night.

[hippywife]

12. Bedtime kick for Bruce!

Nite y'all. :hi: