Utah Phillips

[killdeer43]

One of my early 'influences,' U. Utah Phillips, a real classic guitar-playing storyteller par excellence, died last year.
He was known more for his story telling than his guitar playing but I do remember that he used to play a big Guild! Seems like it might have been a JF-65. Does anyone here know for sure? You can get a good look at it on several YouTube links.
I was recently going through some old B/W photos that I shot of him in performance almost 30 years ago and that Guild fairly leaped off the emulsion! So now, I'm curious and I wonder if he was ever listed on LTG as one of the Guild players out there. He also played a D-50, so there's another! Wonder if he had GAS!!
He was indeed one of a kind and wrote a bunch of sweet songs that are great for fingerpicking fans everywhere.

Reminiscing I am,
Joe

 

[Dr. Spivey]

Can't help with your question Joe, but Utah Phillips was an American icon. Saw him live once, and I'll never forget it. When he was on a roll storytellers like Mark Twain or Will Rogers would pale in comparison.

 

[killdeer43]

Can't help with your question Joe, but Utah Phillips was an American icon. Saw him live once, and I'll never forget it. When he was on a roll storytellers like Mark Twain or Will Rogers would pale in comparison.

I hear you Doc,
You missed a real slice of life if you never heard Utah tell the story about "Moose turd pie." He held your attention right down to the end. What a story! :lol:

Joe

 

[john_kidder]

Utah's guitar was an F-50, with a silver dollar inset in the headstock.

He became a good friend through his constant visits to us here at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival - he was here nearly every year since 1978. He died in the same week as my mother, and I miss them both very much.

 

[killdeer43]

John,

Thanks for the info and a great photo.

Several local musicians put on a benefit concert for him here in Bellingham before he died. One of the highlights came when we all got to "visit" with him via a speaker-phone connection. The small church was totally hushed and we hinged on his every word. There weren't many dry eyes when he signed off because we understood that he wasn't going to be around much longer.
It was always good to know that the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest" was out there. I always thought of him as a musical Edward Abbey. We need more of those.

Think I'll take a break and play a little Starlight on the Rails.

Take care,
Joe

 

[john_kidder]

The photo's from down your way, Folklife in Seattle, I think about 2004.

Starlight On The Rails is a great tune. Myself, I'm going to take a guitar downstairs so as not to disturb my sleeping wife, and play All Used Up. Then I'll sit and remember "The Hymn Song":

• I believe if I lived my life again
  I'd still be here with you
  I believe if I lived my life again
  I'd still be here with you
  
  You know I think if Lady Luck was blind
  The old sun would never shine
  You know I think if Death really held a knife
  We'd all be beggars for life
  
  Sometimes I wish that I could close my eyes
  To some things I don't want to see
  Still I believe if you lived your life again
  You'd still be here with me.

I have a songbook of his - "Starlight on the Rails" in fact. He inscribed it "Mars Ante Servitium" - a true bastard latin phrase never uttered by a Roman, intended to mean "War before Servitude". What a master of braggodocio and bullshit he was, and what a teacher and guide.

I think of Utah whenever a panhandler tries to hit me up for spare change - he always said that he wouldn't give money to anyone who didn't have an improbable story to tell him, some grand fib or concoction about what the money would be used for, a "gaff" - "I'm just trying to do good work in the world, brother, I need your cash to build up enough to get me a speckled rooster, then I'm going to take that rooster down to the chicken pens and turn him loose, hide in the weeds a while and then run and collect the spotted eggs to make omelets for people with measles, and that's why I need your money and why I need it right now because there's a bunch of other bums down the street after that same rooster while we stand here jawing about it and wasting time."

If you didn't have a gaff, then you didn't have a hook, and why in hell should I give you my hard earned money if you aren't giving me something in return, some enjoyment, some reason to laugh.

After a long evening with Bruce one year, I told him that I had decided that I was not going to try to write songs any more, I'd just sing his songs and Guthrie's and Paxton's and Seeger's and Phil Ochs's. There were enough great songs there to fill the universe. And then he told me a story about Andrew Carnegie, and a song just arose from the tale.

We won't see his like again. Damn.

 

[john_kidder]

I always thought of him as a musical Edward Abbey.

And that's right on. A little sugar in the gas tanks of the great destructive diesels of our time.

 

[AlohaJoe]

He was one of the greats. I met him at the Folk Alliance years ago in Portland as we waited for the room to open up for a (mostly bull) presentation by representatives of ASCAP. As they opened the doors he turned to all within hearing range and said loudly, "well, I guess it's time to get my ASCAPPED". :lol: The whole crowd was laughing as they walked in. It was very disconcerting to the ASCAP reps who were not in on the joke and I'll never forget it.

Several local musicians put on a benefit concert for him here in Bellingham before he died.

Would that have been Flip Breskin?

 

[killdeer43]

Would that have been Flip Breskin?

As I recall, and it was noted by the emcee, Flip was unable to attend for some reason, but Linda Allen, Mike Marker, and Laura Smith (familiar names, perhaps) were there along with a drop-in visitor or three from out of town.
It was a gathering of the Utah faithful in a small church and it just left us all with a touch of life's bittersweetness to take home that night.
One of my own up-close-and-personal moments came at a concert Utah did here at the museum several years ago. I knew his music and had followed him closely for years so when he started weaving one of his trademark tales, I knew it was a lead-in to 'Queen of the Rails.' So, I was more than ready when he started playing but he just couldn't remember the opening line. From front row-center, I offered, "I guess his name was Boomer Bill," and then he jumped right into the song. He cornered me after the concert with a big handshake and thanked me for helping him through a "senior moment." :lol:

Aloha from the other Joe

 

[PAC]

Here's a link on Mudcat about: Singing Through the Hard Times - a Tribute to Utah Phillips, a double CD on Righteous Babe Records:
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?thread ... essages=74

Just released on 2/24/09, I heard a couple of cuts on XM 15 about a week ago.

 

[john_kidder]

One of my own up-close-and-personal moments came at a concert Utah did here at the museum several years ago. I knew his music and had followed him closely for years so when he started weaving one of his trademark tales, I knew it was a lead-in to 'Queen of the Rails.' So, I was more than ready when he started playing but he just couldn't remember the opening line. From front row-center, I offered, "I guess his name was Boomer Bill," and then he jumped right into the song. He cornered me after the concert with a big handshake and thanked me for helping him through a "senior moment."

Great tale - I thought my similar story was unique - perhaps if we had a way to talk with all his fans we'd find more.

Mine happened here in Vancouver three years ago, Stage 2 on a sunny Sunday afternoon - Utah was on stage with a bunch of good friends, Fraser Union, Michael Pratt and Lynn McGown and others. He told the crowd that his hands weren't working that well any more, so he was going to recite a old cowboy poem rather than play a tune. And he started out to tell Gail Gardner's "The Sierry Petes (Tyin' A Knot In The Devil's Tale)", a poem (later a song) about two cowboys who got more than a little drunk one day, met the devil on their way home from town, and when he tried to "claim their souls" they roped him, and

• they stretches him out and they tails him down
  And while the irons was getting hot,
  They cropped and swallow-forked his ears
  Then they branded him up a lot.
  
  They pruned him up with a dehorning saw
  And they knotted his tail for a joke,
  Then they rid off and left him there
  Necked up to a blackjack oak.

Utah started out with

• Way up high in the Sierry Petes
  Where the yellow pines grow tall
  Sandy Bob and Buster Jiggs
  Had a rodeer camp last fall

and then he came to a stop, clearly without the next line. Luckily I was once a cowboy, so I know a lot of those old cowboys songs and stories, and I was able to holler out

• They taken their horses and their running irons
  and maybe a dog or two,

And Utah picked it up from there "and 'lowed they'd brand all the long-eared calves / that came within their view" and went on without a hitch.

With the greatest of good luck, in our time there will be folks lucky enough to know our songs and stories when we start to falter.

 

[killdeer43]

With the greatest of good luck, in our time there will be folks lucky enough to know our songs and stories when we start to falter.

It's probably a good idea to have someone close by with the necessary "jumper cables" on hand!
Speaking of Utah moments, I attended an intimate concert in a small venue with Rosalie Sorrells playing and singing and was warmed by the sweet stories she had to share about her old pal.

Good stuff,
Joe

 

[Taylor Martin Guild]

With the greatest of good luck, in our time there will be folks lucky enough to know our songs and stories when we start to falter.

It's probably a good idea to have someone close by with the necessary "jumper cables" on hand!
Speaking of Utah moments, I attended an intimate concert in a small venue with Rosalie Sorrells playing and singing and was warmed by the sweet stories she had to share about her old pal.

Good stuff,
Joe

I also saw Bruce and Rosalie together in concert here in their home state of Utah.

I was also privileged one time, to provide sound for one of his concerts back in the late 80's.
I remember how full and rich his Guild sounded.
He was a great story teller and entertainer and will be misses by many.