Utah Phillips Tribute Concert

Bruce "Utah" Phillips just might get his wish to be remembered as a folk singer. Before his death in 2008, he thought he'd always been pigeonholed as a political pundit, he told his son, Duncan Phillips, who says "I wanted to portray that [folk singer], to give that back to him." To do so, a collective of musicians—with Duncan Phillips as executive producer and Kate MacLeod as producer—crafted Long Gone: Utah Remembers Bruce “Utah” Phillips, a tribute to the muckraking folkie which ably displays Utah Phillips' folk-music talents. "His songs and his stories were more or less my inheritance," Duncan says. That, and an old curly-top maple Guild guitar, which still carries some of the activist Joe Hill's ashes. The dusty six-string appears on all of Long Gone's 18 songs. The musical homage includes more than 20 musicians lending their keen musical interpretations of "The Golden Voice of the Great Southwest." Copies of the album can be purchased at the fundraising concert Jan. 6, which will feature two hour-long sets. Duncan Phillips will emcee, telling stories between tunes, just like his dad would have done.