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From WWR

Bruce "Utah" Phillips (born May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio, died May 23, 2008) was a labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller, poet and self-described "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest". He described the struggles of labor unions and the power of direct action. He often promoted the Industrial Workers of the World in his music, actions, and words.

Utah Phillips was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1935, the son of two labor organizers. They all moved to Salt Lake City in 1947, where he learned to play the ukulele, and to hop freight trains. He served three years in the army in Korea (where he says all that he learned was how to be a pacifist), and when he returned from the war, he continued to roam the nation via the rails. Phillips found both inspiration and kinship from the hobos and Wobblies he encountered in his travels, and he turned the stories and poems he learned into songs. He took on the nickname U. Utah Phillips in honor of his favorite country singer, T. Texas Tyler. Phillips was active in labor and leftist politics in conservative Utah during the 1960s and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1968 on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. He received more than 6,000 votes; not enough to be elected, but enough to get himself blacklisted in the state. Unable to find employment because of his radical views, he left Utah in 1969 and hopped freight trains to get to his coffee house and campus gigs.

Phillips spent a lifetime singing folk songs, protesting, organizing and keeping alive "the long memory". His heros included Pete Seeger, and the Carter Family. In recent years he toured with WWR artists Ani DiFranco and Rik Palieri. He lived with his wife, Joanna Robinson, in Nevada City, California, where both were active in the local peace movement. Despite a heart condition in his final years that severely curtailed his once-active performing schedule, he was full of vim and possessed a great sense of humor.

• Utah Phillips died May 23, 2008 of heart problems.
• mp3 of Utah's Obituary
• In Praise of Utah Phillips
• On Democracy Now
• The family requests memorial donations to Hospitality House, P.O. Box 3223, Grass Valley, California 95945 (530) 271-7144

External links

Website

Utah Phillips on MySpace

Utah Phillips on Wikipedia

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Listener Tags & Comments

The first performance I saw of his was in a little anarchist theater in Detroit, he played to 40 people. It was the day that his friend, Earth First! /labor organizer Judi Bari died, the performance moves me to this day. --MarkDilley

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Image on WWR

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Albums on WWR

• The Past Didn't Go Anywhere

• Rebel Voices

• I've Got To Know

• Good Though

Video

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Request a show of songs by Utah Phillips

Song	Album	Length	Played	Overall	You	Tags	Single Request
Enola Gay	I've Got To Know	2:38	1	1 votes	You have to login to give your opinion about songs.
Was It You?	I've Got To Know	2:22	1	2 votes	You have to login to give your opinion about songs.	Spoken word
I Will Not Obey	I've Got To Know	2:12	1	0 votes	You have to login to give your opinion about songs.
	Total Time	7:12

The current music queue contains 2 songs that will take 9 mins, 8 secs to play.
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Artist name is|Utah Phillips
Last played|   more than 1 month ago
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Show name|    Songs by Utah Phillips
Length|       15 minutes
Order by|     random
Limit|        3 songs
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Stats

• Spotlighted: Never
• Songs on WWR: 36
• Total plays: 125
• Total requests: 69
• Total listens: 2586
• CDBaby referrals: 0
• CDBaby sales:

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