Folk music and the listening world has lost a biggie with the departure of Utah Phillips, who died last Friday in his sleep at the age of 73 in his home town (and mine) Nevada City, CA.

According to an obituary put out by his family, his songs have been performed by Emmylou Harris, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, John McCutcheon, Tom Waits and Joe Ely. In the late 1990s Phillips collaborated with Ani DiFranco on The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere and Fellow Worker, which was nominated for a Grammy award.

I used to enjoy tuning into his radio show on Sunday afternoons, titled “Loafer’s Glory,” which shared the stories and music of hobos, labor songs, tramping and railroad lore, topics that will never go out of style in this country. As his host radio station KVMR put it, “Utah has caught ‘the west bound.’”

When he wasn’t singing or writing or broadcasting, Utah enjoyed watching local little league and could be found wandering and chatting with folks at local parades and demonstrations (hands in pockets) or hitting locals up to support the homeless shelter, which he helped found.

Utah was definitely worth digging. Just tune into his music and you’ll see what I mean.