Moscow Hold
Vagabond, raconteur, sometimeAni DiFrancofellow traveler, and unrepentant political lefty, Utah Phillips happily admits, as he interrupts his performance of "Railroading on the Great Divide," that no one plays much real folk music anymore because, when you get down to it, folk music is boring. Phillips may well have a point, but then again, Phillips isn't so much a folksinger as a storyteller in the folk tradition. And his stories, whether sung or spoken, are anything but boring. More often than not, they are absurdly funny. With a warm, craggy tone that sounds as familiar as a grandpa's voice, Phillips strings together a crazy-quilt collection of slightly surreal tall tales that cover everything from IWW union drives to big-time wrestling competitions to the fecal fantasies of ants. In many ways a best-of collection (the 13 cuts on this CD were gathered from over 20 years of live recordings), Phillips' stories have a way of ending unexpectedly. And where they end up is a very good place, indeed.--Percy Keegan