The Utah Phillips Library

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Weed, CA
The Utah Phillips Library

Center For Folk Music & Activism
Located At The Black Butte Center For Railroad Culture

05/16/2026

A quick message from Dusty at the BBCRC on this, Utah Phillips’ birthday.

Please share the fundraiser and donate if you can!

04/24/2026

Jackson Holte: “Look For Me In Butte”

One of Utah’s many collaborations with his friends and fellow wanderers, this song was written for Mark Ross upon his moving to Butte, Montana.
Ross is a member of The Rose Tattoo, the troupe of musical tramps that Utah belonged to.

Butte, America is a city fraught with culture, struggle, hardship, and joy. Any Montanan will tell you that the once mighty city remains the epicenter for the labor movement in the state.
Utah held Butte in high regard and wrote several other songs about it, including “Nevada Jane” and “Twist And A Pound”. He also signed off most episodes of his radio program with Butte’s own colloquial goodbye:

“Tap ‘Er Light” 🧨

04/22/2026

The interior of the flanger has been emptied, Utah’s belongings have been moved for safe keeping, and the new windows have been ordered!
We’re rolling down the line toward our June restoration, but we’re still a long way from our financial goal!
Help us stay on track and share the fundraiser with your friends, families, and communities!

04/17/2026

Dana Skully: “Dump The Bosses Off Your Back”

Originally penned by John Brill in the 1919 edition of Songs Of The Workers, “Dump The Bosses” became one of Utah’s signature songs in his revival of the music of the IWW.

04/15/2026

A little information about
🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂
The BBCRC has graciously hosted Utah’s Flanger since it arrived in California. Give them a follow and learn more about their other cultural preservation and land restoration endeavors!

04/12/2026

Thank you everyone for your continued support, and especially those of you who made it out to the benefit concert over the weekend. We’ve raised over $20k for the flanger car restoration!

Please continue to share the fundraiser far and wide. We’re hoping to begin renovations in June!

Stay tuned for more concerts, videos, archival materials, and educational resources from The Utah Phillips Library.

04/10/2026

Tonight, please join us for a night of song to fundraise for the future of the flanger car!
With

and wooden shoe

at The Unitarian Universalist Community of the Mountains in Grass Valley, CA.

6PM DOORS | ALL AGES
NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS

Special thanks to for organizing this event, and for hosting us.

04/09/2026

On this day, 9 April 1976, (content note: su***de) US singer-songwriter and activist Phil Ochs died by su***de in Far Rockaway, New York City. He was 35 years old.
Ochs refused to sacrifice his principles for commercial success, writing protest songs and seldom turning down any request to appear at a rally or benefit, especially for the civil rights and anti-war causes. In 1968, Ochs helped organize protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It was there that he personally pleaded with members of the National Guard to desert, and sang “I Ain't Marching Anymore” and “The War is Over” to crowds of young men who responded by burning their draft cards en masse. Witnessing that DNC's police riots crushed the patriotic idealism he'd built his sense of self upon since childhood. His lifelong untreated bipolar disorder started to become unmanageable, and in his attempts at self-medication, he formed debilitating alcoholism.
In 1971, Ochs traveled to South America, where he narrowly avoided being disappeared to Bolivia by the government of Uruguay, and befriended fellow folksinger Victor Jara in Chile. Two years later, Jara was tortured and murdered in the CIA-backed Chilean coup. In 1973, Ochs lost his whole upper register after a mysterious strangling attempt in Dar es Salaam. All the while, he suffered from long-term writer's block, and felt that the decline of the leftwing counterculture in the United States reduced him to a “nostalgia act.”
In 1975, Ochs suffered a psychotic manic episode which spanned several months. Despite a brief rebound from his most severe symptoms and a period of successful sobriety, Ochs remained hopeless. After his death, his survivors discovered that he had been stalked by the FBI for over a decade.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/16045/phil-ochs-dies

03/31/2026

Utah & Ani DiFranco discussing the true purpose and definition of folk music, and the empowerment of voices from the past that were never heard loud enough.

03/19/2026

We can’t wait to sit by the fire with you. 🔥
The fundraiser is rolling on! We’ve almost hit $20k!
Keep sharing the good word and doing the good work.

Address

800 Black Butte Lane
Weed, CA
96094

Website

https://www.gofundme.com/f/restore-utah-phillips-caboose-and-library, https://www.thelongmemory.com/

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