Maureen Hurley and Activist Meridel LeSueur to read at Garbo’s, Guernewood Park

 

RRWG flyer, Dec 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

Maureen Hurley and Meridel LeSueur at Garbo's

Meridel LeSueur at Garbo's

RRWG flyer, Nov 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

Boschka Layton

Allen Cohen

RWG flyer, October 1981, Garbo's Guernewood Park

 

RWG flyer, Oct. 5, 1981, Garbo's in Guernewood Park

Rick Duvall, photo

 

RRWG flyer, Sept-Oct, 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

RRWG flyer, Jul-Aug 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

Aura Sullivan, Bonnie Olsen, Pat Nolan, Cole Swensen, George Tsongas, Gil Helmick, Jerry the Gypsy, or Guerneville Jerry, Hunce Voelcker, Phillip Newton, Ellen Appell, Martha Cortot, Hannah Banahn, Donna Champion, George Klineman, Kathy Just, Judy Phillips, Dan Phillips, Ed Henry, Laurel Alona, Zara Altair, Robert Hass, Susan Maxon, Lee Perron, Shannon Applegate, Charles Entrekin, JH Montrose.

Suzanne Maxon at SSU

RRWG flyer, June 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

RRWG flyer, April, 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

 

RWG flyer, April 13, 1981, Garbo's, Guernewood Park

 

Helen Luster, Paul Mariah, RV Cottam, David Bromige, Charles Wattenberg, Edwin Drummond, Irwin Rosen, Terry Garthwaithe, Rosalie Sorrels, Bobbie Louise Hawkins ,Claire Baker, Maggi Meyer, B Jo Kinnick,Michael Larrain, Cole Swensen, Luke Breit, Rocco Tripodi, Geoffrey Cook at Garbo's

 

Garbo’s flyer 3/2/81, open mike

Gerrye Payne, Maureen Hurley, Andrea Granahan, Edwin Drummond, Gillian Garro, Melvin Muller, Eve Chung at Garbo's

 

Readings Feb, Press Democrat article 1/30/81

Ramon Sender Morningstar, Margery Summerfield, Gerrye Payne, Maureen Hurley, Andrea Granahan, Gillian Garro, Edwin Drummond, Melvin Muller, Eve Chung, Gerry Haslam, Gail King, Jim Jacobs, Bob Gilmore, Rick Duvall, Fran Carbonaro, Asgbolt Stewart, Marianne Ware, Lee Perron, JH Montrose, Donna Champion,

RWG flyer, February 1981, Garbo's Guernewood Park

 

Press Democrat, Poets give rise to verse

RRWG flyer, Jan. 26, 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

Donna Champion's calligraphy. Edwin Drummond must've been pretty boring.

RRWG flyer, Jan 1981, Garbo's, Guerneville

Marianne Ware at SSU 1981

Utah Phillips

I don't recall when I first met Utah, but I was young, still in my teens, I loved folk music and met all kinds of musicians. We called him "Uter." Don't know why, but we'd always sing "Beans, Bacon and Gravy" with gusto whenever Old Uter came to town. I learned "Joe Hill" and "Bread and Roses" at his feet. In the late 1970s to 1981, I worked for Mimi Fariña’s Bread & Roses, I worked many the festivals at the Greek Theater, so it became a blur as to when I met who—but there was always a lot of backstage down time to fill.

I remember, in the early 1980s, when Kate Wolf, who was dying from leukemia, no longer had the energy to fill the whole stage, Utah stepped in. And he lifted her up. The nightengale and the old grizzly bear duet was never sweeter. One show in particular at the River Theater in Guerneville, Sonoma County, was memorable. Utah told stories. We sang until we were hoarse, and when the management threw us out, we ambled over to the diner next door, and continued on in the proper oral tradition until dawn. AaAh, but the craic was good.

It thus became an annual tradition for Utah to visit the River each year. We ran a reading series, The Russian River Writers' Guild at Garbo's Nightclub and Bar, and every year we commemorated the Spanish Civil War vetrans. Zelda’s father, Ed Balchowsky and Utah would tell stories and sing. Ed was a one-armed pianist and Utah wasn't particularly good on the guitar but by God, they could hold a crowd at bay. And have thenm baying at the moon too—even if there wasn’t one.

Sometimes Rosalie Sorrels and poet Bobbie Louise Hawkins would join Utah. We paid half the door. Lord knows it wasn't much, but Utah never turned down an offer to play or tell a story. We were his people. Marianne Ware’s father was an old commie with wobbly leanings—who ran a socialist summer camp in the Borscht Belt. So Utah felt right at home.

Last time I saw Utah was at the 2006 Kate Wolf Festival. We were all suffering from the 114 degree heat, sitting in the creek. Utah was looking florid and peaked, he said his heart wasn't good. I thought it was the heat. I had heat exhaustion. I didn't know he was playing his exit song for us all. God Bless You Bruce Duncan "U. Utah" Phillips. Heaven is a better place, now that you're there. Just lay off the Moose Turd Pie, will ya?