Wobbly/Socialist folk hero Utah Phillips has found allies, friends, in everyone’s vocal social conscience warehouse living activists AK Press, who have re-released some of his finest work to date. And seeing as he’s been making music for upwards of 50 years, that’s saying a lot. This is FANTASTIC. Ironically, most of it was recorded in 1991 and, like the comedy of Bill Hicks, its more timely than ever, dealing with issues of global genocide, war on Iraq, and basic human, worker, rights (remember those?). Some will recognize pieces from the fantastic retooling that Ani DiFranco did of him some years back (The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere). Pieces are all poignant, intelligent, scathing, and hilarious, sometime simultaneiously. Seldom accompanied by more than his own minimal guitar strumming, a lot of this is simple story telling, a capella singing or poetry reading. Its all really really great, a true anti-war statement, anti all wars, violence. A true masterpiece. PLAY. LOTS.

I will segregate these between stories/poems, and songs:

Songs:

2) basic anti-war folk song, title track, “co-written” by Woody Guthrie
5) yellow ribbons, anti-war
9) a capella, killing ground
12) a capela, Korean war, hatred
14) simple folksong
16) wars effect on love, people
18) lord aint it sad, losing friends
20) spoken, a capela, “I will not obey” the draft, war
22) a capela, anti war
25) folksy about the Enola Gay, Hiroshima
27) police state/third world murder, corruption
28) middle American suburbia nimby
30) a capella WWI anti-war
32) with intro, folky classic, river theme

Poems, Stories:

1) brief, “I pledge allegiance…”
3) ideas, workers
4) anti military weaponry
6,7) anti-war, pacifism
8) story- military draft, dodging
10) korea, bigotry
11) story- public transpo, flying, “my car wont run on blood”, leads into next song nicely
13) “victory parades”
15) military, war’s effect on a young man
17) anti-war, taking responsibility
19) story, returning from Korea, tramping, Amon Hennisy
21) story- attending pro-war demonstrations, killing, “I support the troops”, take responsibility
23) story- Truman cactus, enola gay, only one country has used the atomic bomb on humans
24) poem
26) WWI era anti-war
29) a story
31) story, talk- how to make peace inside, throw your TV out the front window
33) brief, with great Morman joke at the end