Utah Phillips

"The golden voice of the great American Southwest", Bruce "U. Utah" Phillips is not one to take retirement sitting down. "Officially" retired from touring since 1996, the politically-conscious, Nevada City, California-based, singer and storyteller has maintained a constant flow of new recordings and reissues. An album of his stories and between-song patter set to music by Ani DiFranco, The Past Didn't Go Anywhere, introduced his anarchistic persona to a young audience, while Loafer's Glory, a collection of stories, poems and songs set to the accompaniment of Woody Guthrie-influenced guitarist Mark Ross, showed his long-time audience that he still had something of importance to say. In addition to two of his earlier albums -- El Capitan and All Used Up -- being released as The Telling Takes Me Home, Phillips' songs were honored with an album-length celebration of his songs by bluegrass duo, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, Heart Songs: The Old Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips, that receive a Grammy nomination as "best traditional folk album of 1997". Phillips and Ross initially worked together in the late-1980s when problems with Phillips contracted focal distonia in his right hand which prevented him from fingerpicking and dupytren in his left hand which made it difficult for him to make a chord. His collaboration with DiFranco was instigated by a letter that he received from the hard-edged acoustic performer. The stories that DiFranco set to music were culled from over a hundred hours of his live performances. Phillips' political awareness was inherited from his parents who were union organizers in the 1930s. His mother worked for the C.I.O. before it merged with the A.F.L.. As a youngster, Phillips was influenced by his exposure to the theater after his parents were...