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Saturday May 31, 2008
: Three on a Theme, plus Stan and Utah
UTAH PHILLIPS
Starlight on the
Rails
Daemon Records 19047
Bruce
“Utah” Phillips has
come out with the defining work of his career. It’s called Starlight
on the
Rails and is a four cd collection with a personal introduction by
Utah to
each cut. It’s a musical documentary of
his life experiences spanning decades, more rich than any American
History
Book. I can’t imagine any folk fan not having this in their collection.
Period.
Utah Philips has
richness
beyond measure. He writes from hobo travel, where the leaving of a new
song
pays for a meal and where a longing can drive one traveling for days to
locate
an old friend. He has the sentiment of cherishing life’s opportunities
and the
eye for making heroes of everyday people. He is a promoter and
supporter of
unions, laborers, railroads, the Industrial Workers of the World, and
laying
down the weapons of privilege. He is a storymaker, storyteller, story
spreader,
historian, anarchist, pacifist, philanthropist, agitator, entertainer,
curmudgeon, and producer of this work he calls a songbook.
On the first cut of
CD one,
Utah introduces the songbook by saying “This is a collection of songs
I’ve
made. I’m both a song learner and a song maker.” He credits those who
live the
events from which he shapes his songs saying, “Nothing happens inside
my head
until something happens outside of it.” He calls his head his office
and says
that taking a song out of it and writing it down makes him forget it,
adding “I’d rather rely on memory than
paper and electricity.”
And relying on
memory he
does. He presents a social history with priceless detail.
He knows countless names, directions and
distances between places, landmarks and patterns of life in small towns
in
America. We go hitchhiking into Wheeling West Virginia, travel an Army
boat to
Adak Alaska and Fort Devans, Massachusetts, and to the Roper yards in
Salt Lake
City near Ammon Hennacy’s Joe Hill house of hospitality for wayward
folks. We
visit Spokane Washington and Decatur Illinois, head to Butte Montana,
Belmont Chicago
(there on North Lincoln), with geographic precision, turning stories
like pages
of an atlas.
These songs are
classics and
little known ditties of the hundreds of songs Utah has made over the
years. By
his own count he’s lost track and asks if anyone has something he left
in some
town, he’d like to know.
You know these
tunes. Maybe over the years, depending on
your age
you’ve heard the Flatlanders doing “Going Away” (is that the moon I
see….) or
Uncle Earl doing “Orphan Train.” Maybe you know Rosalie Sorrell’s
version
of “If I Could Be The Rain” or Robin
and Linda Williams covering his “The Goodnight Loving Trail”, or
perhaps Molly
O’Brien singing “The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia.” CD 3 is entirely covers with Kate Wolf,
Rosalie Sorrels, Kate Brislin and Jody Stecher among others performing
his
works. Following the format of the
collection Utah continues to introduce each cut.
It is the
introductions
throughout that make this collection really special.
These stories are gifts. They educate, they entertain and they,
as Utah says, help adults wake up. The stories are what birthed each
song and
they are like family heirlooms. We hear the tale of catholic minors who
carried
morphine tins to “leave in a painless manner” if they were caught
underground
facing death. Others teach double-jack mining, or celebrate the value
of the
worker whose labor creates all wealth so should all wealth belongs to
labor. He
takes us with him: protesting the execution of an unfortunate Chicano
boy,
finding a dead hobo in a boxcar, feeding the hungry, singing struggles
of the
downtrodden, the weak, the under- privileged, and less fortunate.
On the release Utah
apologizes to his children for choosing to meander and not be as
present as he
might have been in their lives. He states, “This is what I’ve done with
my life
kids, wish I’d been with you more. It’s been one long story and we’re
all in
it. Most we can hope for is that in the end it will be well told”
We should all thank his children for coping with this absence, for we are all so rich because of that life choice. I’m thankful as a parent, a librarian, a folk presenter and dj. We don’t have Woody Guthrie or Joe Hill anymore, but damn it, we do have Utah Philips. —AP
Folk Plus is a SING OUT! magazine Radio Partner (www.singout.org)Thanks to all well wishers with my curret battle with neurotoxic poisoning and chemical sensitivities (http://pagewebberink.com/~angie/)
Index to Folk Plus setlists. Check out Angela's interviews / Return to WJFF
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