Bruce 'Utah' Phillips, 1935-2008

Singer, song-writer, writer, and story-teller Bruce 'Utah' Phillips died on 23 May. An obituary by Richard Thompson, outlining his career (including the songs that have passed into the bluegrass repertoire, such as 'Rock salt and nails'), appears on the Bluegrass Blog, together with video footage of a performance.

A fuller obituary, provided by his family, is here. A memorial gathering will be held at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow, Sunday 1 June, at Nevada City Little League Park, Pioneer Park, Nevada City, California.

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Update, 5 June:

Laurie Lewis, in her latest newsletter, has a memoir of Utah, ending:

Utah said that one of his mentors, Ammon Hennacy, once told him to always make sure your heroes are dead, so that they don't have a chance of messing up. Utah has been a hero of mine for many years, and I'm happy to say he never let me down in his lifetime.