Utah Phillips Tribute

I never had the opportunity to meet Utah, having only encountered his wisdom a few years before he stepped out. His words on the Ani album were my introduction to one of the greatest minds I have ever found. His past, in the military, echo my own path four decades later. His thoughts and opinions and above all, his stories will continue to impact fortunate souls for many, many, years to come. Some have said they never met someone they couldn't love. I've never loved someone I couldn't meet, until now. Fly on, my friend, and wish us luck.

During a time of personal and public trouble here in New Mexico--blind authorities shutting down local high school poetry team for being not sufficiently war like--I got a phone call from Utah Phillips wanting to interview me. I was shocked and pleased and overjoyed to meet the man I have admired for my whole adult life, and we interviewed each other. That was the start of an all too brief few years of friendship and infrequent contacts, but I treasure every phone call and letter as I do all Utah's stories, songs, poems and smiles. He was a man of wisdom, kindness, generosity and strength. What better memory can there be in this world?
We will hold a tribute to Utah here in Santa Fe NM on July 14 and I hope all his friends in the southwest will come join with us. bill_nevins@yahoo.com Bill Nevins Albuquerque NM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bill 505 264 6979 piecefront@yahoo.com



Legendary New Mexico Songwriter Kell Robertson Headlines Tribute to Utah Phillips



Santa Fe–Legendary 78-old New Mexico “beat” poet-songwriter Kell Robertson will make a rare public appearance to headline A Tribute to Utah Phillips concert at Santa Fe Brewing Company, Monday, July 14, 2008, starting at 7 pm. Joining Kell onstage to honor their mutual friend and inspiration, the late bard Utah Phillips, will be Joe West, Kendall McCook, Mitch Rayes, Richard Malcolm (of Burning Moonlight) and White Buffalo Music Presents Georgie Angel. Additional guests and friends of both Kell and Utah are expected to show up and sit in. Bill Nevins, contributing editor of Albuquerque ARTS monthly, will MC the evening. Admission is only $5 at the door, and fine food and beverages will be available. www.santafebrewing.com



This will be a rousing evening of music, stories, poetry and gentle rebellion, as befits the memory of the late Utah Phillips, the widely beloved songsmith, union advocate and raconteur who collaborated with Ani DiFranco on Grammy-nominated albums.



Kell Robertson, a long time friend and comrade-in-song of Utah Phillips, is himself an American treasure who has lived quietly in the Santa Fe area for the past ten years. He has performed his music and poetry from San Francisco to New York City .. For several years he tended bar and performed at the Thunderbird in Placitas, where he played and sang with the likes of Lightnin' Hopkins and hosted poetry and sang at Silva's Saloon in Bernalillo.

Kell lived in San Francisco for many years in the late 50s and early 60s, where he made his living singing at noted venues such as Vesuvio's and the Coffee Gallery, favorite hang outs for Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Diane di Prima, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and other Beat writers of the fabled North Beach scene. Kell’s songs, recorded on the albums Cool & Dark Inside and When You Come Down Off the Mountain, are finely crafted and heartfelt music of the American West. Although mostly retired from performing, Kell composes poetry and still writes and plays his guitar every night on the secluded farm where he lives near Cerillos. A new collection of poetry is expected later this year from Pathwise Press www.pathwisepress.com/Bear_Crossing.htm

The musicians joining and accompanying Kell Robertson onstage in tribute to Utah Phillips are all veteran performers in the Americana , blues and folk genres, well known to New Mexico audiences. Santa Fe ’s Joe West, known for his renditions of Utah Phillips songs, has been praised by the national magazine Dirty Linen for his edgy humor and warm stage presence, in the Santa Fe All Stars and other bands. Kendall McCook, like Utah himself, is a true “voice of the great Southwest” and a master story teller. Mitch Rayes is a poet and songwriter from Albuquerque who has travelled manys the hard winding road. Richard Malcolm, also from Burque, is a practitioner of the deep blues. And Georgie Angel is a Pecos-Santa Fe “outlaw” music legend himself.

It is a rare treat to have these desperados on a stage together for an evening of song-sharing in tribute to Utah Phillips and the wild spirit of what has been called “that old weird America”—weird and beautiful, that is.For more information, contact Bill Nevins at piecefront@yahoo.com

Or phone (505) 264 6979. [30]

I met Bruce in 1974 in Bolinas California, when Rosalie Sorrels lived there and kept an open-house for musicians, poets and others of her vast collection of friends, of which I was proud to count myself as one.

Together we traveled to concerts from San Francisco to Tomales Bay, heard stories of hard times, good times and abiding friendship. As a fellow Wobbly, I found it easy to connect with Bruce and his tales of union organizing and more.

Years later I came across him in Nevada City where he hustled my husband and I out of the music store we were browsing in to give us each a small button with the word "spy" in white letters on a black background.

"Now we are all spies in the eyes of Homeland Security." he said, a characteristic gleam in his eyes. We immedately put on our spy buttons and promised to keep in touch.

Of course we didn't. More fools us.

Miss you Bruce!

In about 1971, I spied U. Utah Phillips for the first time. It was at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Toronto, where I saw a great, swaggering son of a bitch in leather jeans and hat, with a forty ounce hip flask dangling out of his pocket. He told the best lies and sang the best songs I'd yet heard.
It was some years later, after I'd gotten to know Bruce and his friends Rosalie and Bodie Wagner, when I saw him and Rosalie perform at Redpath Hall in Montreal. Rosalie'd been through a rough patch and got on stage drunk. He gave her the space and the dignity she needed to get out what she had to. He supported his friend in the most gracious way possible. Who'd have thought that great lout of a man had so much compassion and presence to pull that off.
That was when I realized what a great human he was. We're sure gonna miss his presence down here on earth. I'm almost in a hurry to sit around the campfire in the sky and swap stories and songs with him.
Max McLaughlin, Smithers BC

Utah Phillips entertained me, made me laugh, made me think, and made me question everything I thought I believed. Bruce Phillips was my friend, like an older brother at a time when I needed one. We met back in the Saratoga days in the early 70's, and spent some good times together. But the best story I know about him happened when my wife was visiting her friend, Carol, in Huntsville, Alabama. They were looking for something to do, and saw that Utah Phillips was playing in the area. Carol had never heard of Utah Phillips, but my wife convinced her to go. After the concert, my wife asked Carol what she thought of the concert. Carol said, "I feel like I've just been to church". What more is there to say? His passing has left a hole in the world, but he had the good sense to leave us with enough to fill the hole and carry on. Bravo Bruce Phillips! A life well lived.

Several years ago, I was at a Christmas Faire in Auburn, Calif...I was amazed to see the such talent performing for the price of admisssion at the Faire. I did not know of Joe Crave, Golden Bough, and Utah Phillips at that point but I became thankfully acquainted.
Utah told his "Moose Turd Pie" and other stories and I fell off the chair laughing!
Later, in and around Grass Valley and Nevada City, I got to know Utah a bit and saw him perform many times, participated in a baseball music show with him and Steve Baker on KVMR, and had him on my own show a time or two. I was inspired by his peace activisim and his initiating of the homeless shelter in the area. He was alway gracious and I was never knew for sure that he remembered by name but I sure knew his.
I learned along the way how close he was to John McCutcheon, the fine and talented singer/writer/instrumentalist that has become a friend and is a great supporter of community radio KVMR. I felt really privileged to be in the presence and know that both are great soul-brothers. They are both American heroes in my book.
Gary Harrison