The Rose Tattoo
An original poster from 1998 for the Rose Tattoo tour. Depicted are
Mark Ross, Bruce Brackney, Bob Suckiel, Kuddie, Larry Penn, and U. Utah Phillips.
Poster by Barbara Hoyt
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Pictures of the
2002 Tour by some of the Rose Tattoo
Maybe the original “Rose Pose” – Sent over by JB “Froze Rose” Freeman
This pic dates from '76 or '77 in Spokane, WA. L-R are JB "Freewheelin'" Freeman ("Froze Rose" came later, and is a long story), Bruce "Haywire Brack" Brackney, Joe "Parry, Eh?" Sheridan, Kuddie, Utah, and "Silkie" Miller. The picture was taken at the Tattoo Parlor of a woman artist named Leslie (I forget her last name) on the completion there of Kuddie's new rose. We were all living in Spokane at the time, all but Utah in a little area called Peaceful Valley, down on the river in an old working class section of town.
Some of the Roses...
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U. Utah Phillips - "Bow Tie" The Golden Voice of the Great Southwest. Utah Phillips has crafted a fascinating show out of his life. Over the course of 65 years, he has labored, soldiered, tramped, and for the past thirty years made his way telling stories and singing songs. He has the wit, humor, bite and intelligence of a Mark Twain or a Will Rogers, and behind his "Everyman" appearance is a consummate artist. Peppered with one-liners and off-hand philosophical commentary, his revealing stories tell our true history and connect us to American traditions that are genuinely ours. Utah is a national treasure, a writer of haunting songs, a storyteller of hilarious presence and subtle depth, a union organizer, historian and scholar, a Celtic Yiddish bard, and Pleistocene bon vivant. A 40-year member of the Industrial Workers of the World, he is the most entertaining labor troubadour of our time, leading his audience on an emotional roller coaster with side-splitting storytelling and fire-breathing working class songs. According to one reviewer, "Phillips exemplifies some of the traits which Americans most value: an open and inquisitive mind, a caring heart, and a sharp but humorous tongue. He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the North American Folk Alliance, Lifetime Service to Labor Award and is a member of American Federation of Musicians, Traveling Musicians Local 1000. -John Cloud 'Map Reader' |
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Mark Ross
- "Smokestack" Quintessential hobo, consummate musician and truly Artful Dodger, Mark Ross is the only 'tattoo' who has lived through a train wreck. Beginning in the basket houses in Greenwich Village, he has spent 33 years in the trade, and plays about a dozen instruments. A Minimalist of the First Water, in his continuing quest to get by on next door to nothing, Mark has spent the last 20 years in western Montana. |
| Bruce Brackney - "Haywire Brack" The expatriate, currently living alongside the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island. Raised in Minnesota, Brack later held placer mining claims in Trinity County before emigrating to Canada in 1983. A good friend of old songs and vice versa, "Haywire Brack" is the model of a true tramp intellectual, with a mind like a steel catch-and-release trap. |
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Bob & Diana Suckiel - "Boomer Bob & Mama Pipes" In the old parlance, Bob's now a 'Hoghead.' But after 30 years, over four different railroads, from gandy-dancer, to switchman, to brakeman, Bob now warrants the more modern honorific "C.&E." as a Conductor and Engineer on the main line of the Union Pacific. Bob's music is rooted in the blues, though inflected with hometown Kansas City Jazz. Diana Suckiel is a downright do-right woman whose sobriquet is derived both from her soulful singing voice and her trade: 'Mama Pipes' is also a journeyman plumber. |
| Larry
Penn -"Cream City Slim" The Patriarch, who, at 71, continues to craft the finest railroad songs heard today. Toy maker, Poet, retired Teamster; running over-the-road 35 years out of Milwaukee, Larry Penn sings songs and tells stories of working people, trains, trucks, life on the road, love, nonsense and pink flamingos. Elegant in their simplicity, sometimes shiftily witty, always melodically infectious, Larry's songs grow on you... like blossoms from The True Vine. |
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Rik Palieri
- "Song of the Elk" Rik is a talented singer, song writer, multi instrumentalist, and storyteller who lives the musical life to the fullest. He is a very energetic performer who captivates audiences of all ages with his stories and songs. Rik has performed at concert halls, schools and festivals throughout the lower 48 states, toured Alaska by float plane, rode camelback in Australia and sung on trains throughout Europe. |
| Al Grierson lived in a red 1977 International Harvester school bus on an armadillo farm just outside the mythical hamlet of Luckenbach, Texas, where everybody is somebody. Not that he wasn't already somebody when he got there, but most of the folks in Luckenbach have titles to show what kind of somebody they are --like fire Marshall Jimmie Lee, fish Commissioner Junior and Sheriff Marge. The job of Poet Laureate was open when Al got there a few years ago and he was given the job and the title by the legendary Magnolia Thunder Blossom, president of the Luckenbach Ladies' Lynchin' League and editor of the town's monthly news sheet, The Luckenbach Moon. Somehow in the midst of all that he managed to write some songs that have moved performers as diverse as Pittsburgh activist and singer Anne Feeney and Texas honky-tonk legend Ray Wylie Hubbard to learn, perform, and record them. His first solo recording "Things That Never Added Up To Me" was released to world-wide critical acclaim in 1995 and his second, "A Candle For Durruti" received a similar reception following its release in 1999. His songs are now standard fare on folk music programs from Galway to Guam and from Australia to Estonia. |
"Luckenbach"
Al Grierson
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(C) 2002 Christopher Dunn