U. Utah Phillips, 73; Folk Singer Championed the Working Class

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052902087_pf.html

By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 30, 2008; B07

U. Utah Phillips, 73, a Grammy-nominated folk singer, rabble-rouser and anarchist whose wild white beard recalled his years as a tramp, died of heart disease May 23 at his home in Nevada City, Calif.

Mr. Phillips, over four decades on the road, combined storytelling with song, describing the plight of the working class, the power of labor unions and the necessity of direct action. He dubbed himself the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest," but, like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, his words, more than his baritone voice, carried authority. He had been a soldier, a railroader, a state archivist, a union organizer, founder of a homeless shelter and homeless himself.

He recorded the oft-overlooked value of rubber pockets, a necessity when stealing soup. His tall tale "Gaffing" was a rich illustration of populist scams. He honored the likes of Hood River Blackie and Fry Pan Jack and never hesitated to leaven his history lessons about the Ford Strike of 1932, the Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1910 and the Canine Corps of World War II with such hysterical stories as "Suspender" and "Blackie and the Duck."

His fans have posted dozens of videos of him or his songs online, and a new generation discovered him in the mid-1990s, when folk musician and entrepreneur Ani DiFranco edited about 100 hours of homemade tapes of his performances and blended them with electronic hip-hop, creating an album called "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere" (1996), and released it on her Righteous Babe label.

In 1999, he collaborated with DiFranco on the live album "Fellow Workers," which was nominated for a 2000 Grammy in the contemporary folk album category.

"He was a real storyteller in his performances. He was just a catalogue of people's history in the United States," DiFranco said this week in an interview. "He was so engaging on many, many levels."

FULL story at link.

[jChicago]

1. 1st collaboration w/ DiFranco simply amazing

I love this record. His telling of his experience in the Korean war, racism against opera singer Marian Anderson and especially the one about the vet who became addicted to morphine after losing his arm in the Spanish civil war, ended up homeless and could still play Chopin beautifully with the one arm. .

Great line; "kids are so conservative" (meaning conformist).

He had unique insights. He will be missed.