Utah Phillips
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Bruce "Utah" Phillips (b. May 15, 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio) is a progressive, even radical, folk singer, storyteller, and poet. He describes the struggles of trade unions and the power of direct action. He has told audiences about the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) for years.
Utah Phillips' given name is Bruce Phillips. A fan of T. Texas Tyler, Phillips adopted the stage name U. Utah Phillips.
Phillips served the United States Army for three years beginning in 1956 in the Korean War before returning to Salt Lake City, Utah and joining Ammon Hennacy from the Catholic Worker Movement in establishing a mission house of hospitality named after the activist Joe Hill. Phillips worked at the Joe Hill House for the next eight years, then ran for the U.S. Senate as a candidate of Utah's Peace and Freedom Party in 1968.
In 1991 Phillips recorded an album of song, poetry and short stories entitled I've Got To Know in one take, inspired by his anger at the first Gulf war. The album includes his first composition "Enola Gay" written about the United States' atomic attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Phillips was a mentor to Kate Wolf. He has recorded songs and stories with Rosalie Sorrels on a CD called The Long Memory (1996), originally a college project from Montana. Ani DiFranco has recorded two CDs, The Past Didn't Go Anywhere (1996) and Fellow Workers (1999), with him. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his work with Ani DiFranco.
Phillips hosts his own weekly radio show - Loafer's Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind.
External links
- http://www.utahphillips.org
- September 2003 Interview (http://www.progressive.org/sept03/intv0903.html) in The Progressive
- Biography (http://www.folk.org/Awards/1997.htm) from the 1997 Folk Alliance Lifetime Achievement Awards