I just received a not from Clint, an old friend from grade school and he mentioned Utah Phillips. Now Bruce "U. Utah" Phillips was a folksinger, he was a Union man, a father and he was a human being. All that other stuff is fine but this covers a good batch of the important stuff. He passed away in 2008 and I stumbled across his blog which has been continued on by his son, Duncan. It brought back many fond memories of the man and his music and his heart.
I'll share my slightly edited comments with you below that I wrote to Duncan and his readers back then...So go listen to Utah Phillips and more importantly, go live like him...with passion and grit and standing up for what YOU believe in..Amen.
Brad Riesau said...
I played Bruce's I HAD A MULE on July 4th at a beautiful outdoor gig and I hadn't sung it since the late 70s so I searched online for the words which I never came up with.
But, alas, I read the news of his passing and I was saddened greatly and almost immediately filled with great joy of having not only experienced his incredible rapport as a member of an audience numerous times over the years but also touched personally by his grace and sincerity as a human being.
I was a young college student at SDSU in the late 70s and was on the Cultural Arts Board that worked with San Diego folk supporter Lou Curtiss to book what was a gem of a little annual Folk Festival.
The first year I was involved Utah was one of the headliners. After speaking with him briefly before one of the afternoon workshops I was completely taken with the direct and passionate focus he had with each and every person he met as well as his inate ability to touch folks on a very personal but universal level whether conversing casually or in the spotlight onstage.
Also on the bill was Kate Wolf who was as gracious as a person could be to an enamored guitar player (me) who was scrawling down lyrics to tunes as she sang them. I had the audacity to ask her if they were correct as she came off stage. She was sweet enough to offer to show me the chords right then and there. The song was A LEGEND IN HIS TIME which on hearing it now seems to fit Bruce as well.
In the years since, I have worked as a publicist for many fine musicians including Willie Nelson in whom I have also witnessed this kind of graciousness and connection on a one-to-one basis with his fans. And I always recalled the first time I ever saw the wall between stage and audience fall away, when I first realized through Utah and Kate that the reason these great talents were so magnificent was that they were just good folks like the rest of us; folks with families, folks that cared about other people, folks that spent their time sharing good thoughts and good messages and good sense with other good folks.
Here's to good folks.
July 8, 2008 2:31 AM