STARLIGHT ON THE RAILS: A SONGBOOK

Utah Phillips crafted a fascinating show out of his life. In the course of seventy years he labored as a dishwasher, archivist, printer, and warehouseman; soldiered in the Korean War; lived as a tramp, and for over 40 years made his way telling stories and singing songs. He had the wit, humor, bite, and intelligence of a Mark Twain or a Will Rogers, and behind his Everyman appearance was a consummate artist. Peppered with one-liners and offhand philosophical commentary, Utah's revealing stories, about such spirited American characters as Charley Goodnight, Mother Jones, and Idaho Blackie, tell our true history and connect us to American traditions that are genuinely ours. Utah Phillips is described as a national treasure, a writer of haunting songs, a storyteller of hilarious presence and subtle depth, a union organizer, historian and scholar, a Celtic-Yiddish bard, a Pleistocene bon vivant, a post-modern ne'er-do-well, and a heck of an engineer. A 40-year member of the Industrial Workers of the World, he was the most entertaining labor troubadour of our time, leading his audience on an emotional rollercoaster with side-splitting storytelling and fire-breathing working class songs.