no root no fruit!

“Kids don’t have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don’t have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that. That’s why I sing these songs. That’s why I tell these stories, dammit. No root, no fruit!”
the words of utah phillips. i had the pleasure of seeing him in the flesh back in Colorado and i was all smiles. the entire time. he was tall. he was wearing a red flannel and overalls, a cool hat and a big grey beard. he had tattoos from the war and from the trains. he was someone you could not ignore. and when he started telling stories and playing his guitar i couldn’t sit still-i was giddy.