Rebecca Riots; the Labor Chorus; Hali Hammer; Darryl Cherney; Carol Denney; Elliot Kenin More

Join Rebecca Riots, the Labor Chorus, Hali Hammer, Darryl Cherney, Carol Denney, Elliot Kenin, and others for a rousing evening of music and memories of the unforgettable Utah Phillips, who left us on May 23. Proceeds will benefit the Hospitality House, a homeless shelter that Phillips founded in Nevada City, where he lived. This concert is sponsored by the IWW (International Workers of the World), KPFA, Earth First!, and the Berkeley Unitarians. In addition to the live music, videos of Phillips will be screened.
Musical rabble-rouser and self-proclaimed ?Golden Voice of the Great Southwest,? Utah Phillips covered two million miles in fifty years of one-nighters. He was a champion of hobo culture and workers? rights, a union organizer (a lifelong Wobbly), and an amazing storyteller and songwriter. One of his two CDs with Ani DiFranco was nominated for a Grammy Award, and his songs have been recorded by dozens of musicians. This concert's performers, likewise, have dedicated their time and lives to using music to make a better world.
The fresh radical folk trio Rebecca Riots got more than a little of its original vision from Phillips. ?We really appreciate his politics and activism,? Riots singer Lisa Zeiler explains. ?We listened to his show on KPFA and Eve Decker grew up listening to his music. The songs we will do are mostly topical, politically oriented songs. And we may play a more recent song called ?Anarchist Delight?.?
Carol Denney is a political singer, Fiddlers for Peace organizer, curator of the Deep Poetry Project, editor of the Pepper Spray Times, and a 2004 honoree by the City of Berkeley for homeless advocacy. Hali Hammer has sung and played for peace and political causes for more than three decades. Darryl Cherney was one of the main organizers of the campaign to save the Humboldt Redwoods, was car-bombed with fellow activist Judi Bari, and helped establish the Headwaters forest preserve near Eureka.