Old Wobbly Will Vote For The First Time

Utah Phillips is an old folk singer, activist, hobo, and anarchist who just happens to live in the county seat of my home county. He has no use for Kerry or Bush, but feels that things are so bad right now that he will break his long-standing oath against participating in the system and vote for the first time in his (pretty long) life. I ran across this article by Carolyn Crane in The Nation.

This is not easy for me. I'm an anarchist and I've been an anarchist many, many years.

But, we are in a desperate situation here. And it's not just us in the United States. There are people all over the world who are affected by these people who have staged a coup on our government.

No, I won't give up the street. But in this instance, at this time, at this place, I think the situation is so dire that yes, I have registered to vote and I am prepared to stand in for one of the victims of the kind of brutality that the people in Washington bring to the world.

I feel lousy about it. I don't feel good about it all. I'm simply going to do it. And if there are consequences of my act, than I harvest those consequences. That too, is anarchy.

If Utah is going to vote, things are as bad as we think they are. Read the article.

I've been a fan of this guy forever. Once known as "The Golden Voice Of The Great Southwest", which was a put-on to begin with, these days he sounds like a train wreck in a gravel pit, but his message is as clear as ever.

Please check out some of his CD's here. Buy some.

My personal favorite CD is "The Moscow Hold" which is stories rather than songs. I pretty much roll around on the floor holding my sides and spewing milk out my nose every time I listen to it.

Update: Later

Go read the words to "The NPR Talking Blues". Or play and sing. It's folk music, only takes three chords.

Just a taste....

This is radio station H O B O
Broadcasting on a vagrancy of 60 to 90 days
Signing off
For now.