Monday, July 23, 2007

Railroading on the Great Divide


It's great to see Utah Phillips is still out there playing. This is from 2007 at the Strawberry Music Festival. I particularly enjoyed his comments about oil. Utah is a fantastic storyteller and a fabulous songwriter too. If he ever comes to your town, be there! I attended one of his shows many years ago at the Transat Club in Toronto. I think that was located in the Annex, but I can't remember exactly where now. Utah came out dressed like some old time train engineer, with his long white hair tied back and hanging down to his waste. He's a self-professed anarchist and a Wobbly too. Phillips walks out on stage as if he is walking out of another time. The past, after all, didn't go anywhere.

2 comments:

Gardenia said...

What a treat it must have been to see this guy in person! He is a wonderful humorist as well as musician. Of course he got me, with his singing about the great divide and Wyoming and all.............

mister anchovy said...

I highly recommend the two CDs Utah did with Ani Defranco, especially the one titled The past didn't go anywhere. It features Utah telling stories with musical accompanyment by Ms. Defranco.