Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips Review

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Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips ReviewBruce Phillips became known to me back in the late 1960's when I became friends with a New Jersey folk singer and newsman named Jim Labig. Jim has been dead quite awhile, but in his mostly amateur singing career he put out one record for a Vermont label. He was a friend of Utah's, and asked him to contribute the liner notes. Mr. Phillips turned in the funniest version of liner notes I have ever seen on an LP or in a CD booklet in my life. Reading that piece made me want to meet him and I got my chance at the 1969 Philly Folk Festival. If memory serves, he played before a small audience on a Sunday afternoon in a farm field, right after Jean Ritchie. I do not recall what songs Utah chose, but I have never forgotten his guitar, with "I.W.W." taped or painted on it, for Industrial Workers of the World, a.k.a. The Wobblies, one of the more radical labor unions ever created, and by that time, one with a tiny membership compared to most. Utah was known as a left-leaning social justice kind of guy, a fine storyteller, and better at writing songs than performing them. On this tribute two-CD set, you will find a variety of performers, a few famous, a few with "authentic" vocal talent rather than smooth, and a range of songs that reflect Utah's interests. He was anti-war, sometimes anti-clergy, occasionally anti-capitalism, anti-authoritarian, and anti-urban renewal projects which chased out the hoboes and down-and-outers and free spirits from city streets. While these songs are often interesting and clever, and less dated than I expected, his love songs, whether about people or places, are the ones I think will endure. Some of his early songs were championed by the likes of Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, John Denver and other artists with mass popularity. This category includes "Starlight on the Rails" and "The Telling Takes Me Home" and "Goodnight-Loving Trail" along with "I Remember Loving You" and "Hood River Roll On", "Rock Salt and Nails" and my favorite of all, "Daddy, What's a Train?" This set is worth the purchase just for those, but there are several other lesser-known compositions which are also quite nice. There are 39 songs on this set, and I will enjoy repeated plays of at least 30 of them. Other souls will have different favorites. This may not suit the tastes of the more conservative music fans, politically and socially, but sadly it can be hard to find a conservative with an appreciation for made-in-America folk-flavored writers. Even if one does not agree with Utah Phillips' political positions, this tribute shows off his talents with a phrase and a musical idea.Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips OverviewIn his life, Utah Phillips was many things - soldier, hobo, activist, pacifist, union organizer, storyteller, songwriter. He was an oral historian who documented the events of the working class and turned them into stories and songs.And in the folk tradition, he passed them on to others.Righteous Babe Records continues that tradition with Singing Through The Hard Times, a two-CD set that celebrates the music that Utah sang and loved. Included are performances from Emmylou Harris and Mary Black, Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, John McCutcheon, Rosalie Sorrels, Gordon Bok, Ani DiFranco, Magpie, Jean Ritchie and many others - folksingers whose music springs from the same rich vein of the people's history that Phillips chronicled throughout his life.

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