[Deathwatch] Bruce "Utah" Phillips, folk singer, 73

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Folk singer Utah Phillips dies in California
Nate Carlisle and Lindsay Whitehurst


Article Last Updated:05/24/2008 

Posted: 8:15 PM- Folk singer and activist Bruce "Utah" Phillips, whose
songs included tales of the state's working class and tragedies, died
Friday of congestive heart failure.

    Phillips, 73, died in Nevada City, Calif., where he resided. While
not among the biggest names in folk music, Phillips described himself
as the "Golden Voice of the Great Southwest" and was an influence for
artists such as Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez and Tom
Waits, who have recorded his songs. An album Phillips recorded with Ani
DiFranco received a Grammy nomination.

    "Many artists extract from working and poor people for
authenticity," friend and environmental writer Jordan Fisher Smith
said. "He also gave it back ... he extracted the meaning and gave it
back to the people experiencing it."

    Phillips songs included "John D. Lee," a recounting of the Mountain
Meadows Massacre. Another song, "Scofield Mine Disaster" recalled the
1900 central Utah coal mine explosion that killed 200 people.

    "A miner's life is hard I know," Phillips wrote and sang. "His
world is dark and far below/While he starves and goes in rags/He's
cheaper than the coal he digs."

    Phillips son, Duncan Phillips, who lives in Salt Lake City, said
his father was enthralled with Utah's working class, particularly
Mormons and their folklore.

    "They were kind of put aside and chased off like a lot of other
people in the world are," Duncan Phillips said. "He tried to look at
both sides of things and understand people and bring some common
ground."

    Born May 15, 1935, in Cleveland to labor organizer parents, Bruce
Phillips and his family came to Utah in 1947. His parents became
distributors for Paramount movie studio and owned the Capitol Theatre
and Tower Theatre until their deaths, Duncan Phillips said.

    Bruce Phillips served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Disturbed by the fighting, Bruce Phillips returned to the states and
was drinking and "bumming" on freight trains when he ended up in the
Joe Hill House, a Salt Lake City homeless shelter named for a labor
organizer.

    He went on to work as an archivist for the state, where he learned
much of Utah's history.

    Ken Sanders, owner of Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City, met
Phillips in the 1960s.

    "He was always working on the rights of others," he said. "He spent
an awful lot of his life bumming around the country, spent a little of
his life as a hobo. He was never in one city for a long time."

    Bruce Phillips left Salt Lake City in 1969, believing that a failed
run for the U.S. Senate with the Peace and Freedom party left him
blacklisted.

    "He tried to get work and everywhere turned him down," Duncan
Phillips said.
    A short time later, he released his first album. After years of
touring, Bruce Phillips settled in Nevada City, Calif., with his fourth
wife Joanna Robinson.

    He used his music and notoriety to remain an activist. In 2005, he
told The Tribune, "When I go play a town I haven't been to in a while,
I want them to send me the newspaper so I can get caught up on the
local issues. Then I go to the library and read up on the history and
economic base and economic distribution so I know the right questions
to ask."

    Phillips played in Utah as recently as January 2007 at a folk
revival at Highland High School.

    Phillips' other survivors include another son and a daughter,
several stepchildren, brothers and sisters and a grandchild. The family
requests memorial donations go to Hospitality House, a homeless shelter
founded by Phillips in Grass Valley, Calif. Additional information is
available at www.hospitalityhouseshelter.org.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary