Utah Phillips

Singing Songs and Telling Stories

By: Utah Phillips

As Joe Glazer, Chairman of the Labor Heritage Foundation, noted, this was the first time that the IWW and the AFL-CIO had gotten together in over a century, and it was to honor the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest.

Accompanied by his daughter Morgan, and nursing a bandaged right hand, Utah Phillips accepted the "Joe Hill" Award and entertained labor musicians with a rare a capella performance for over an hour.

Utah Phillips has been described as a true eclectic, archivist, historian, activist, philosopher, hobo, tramp, member of the IWW, and just about everything in between. Utah's memory contains a wide ranging wealth of lore, which he lets us romp through by way of his shows and recordings. Utah Phillips is a nationally known folk artist, singer/story teller, Grammy Award Nominee for his work with Ani Difranco, and hosts his own weekly radio show, "Loafer's Glory: The Hobo Jungle of the Mind".

This performance was recorded on June 21, 2004, at the Great Labor Arts Exchange held at the George Meany AFL-CIO Labor Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.

©2004 Radio Free Maine and Roger Leisner (P)2004 Radio Free Maine and Roger Leisner

Terrible

The recording is all but unintelligible. How this could actually come to be released for sale is beyond me.