Utah Phillips was saying this week that one of the best parts of having lived a life taking his unique blend of folk songs, humor and philosophy on the road is the cast of characters he 's rubbed up against.

"It is an endless carnival, " Phillips said.

He recalled the night some time ago when he was sitting on a stage in Madison, with the evening coming to a close. It dawned on Phillips that he had the next day off, so he did what he always did in that situation.

He asked the audience: "What should I do on my day off? "

Someone in the crowd, knowing Phillips ' proclivities, shouted back: "Go see Dr. Evermor! "

Dr. Evermor is a metal sculptor who builds large works of art in a park south of Baraboo that he calls the Evermor Historic Artistic Sculpture Park. Among his best known works is a sculpture that weighs 400 tons. Evermor, who was Tom Every before he was Evermor, calls it the Forevertron and expects it will one day serve as a space ship to take him into outer space.

Naturally, Utah Phillips hit it off with Dr. Evermor.

"That 's an incredible thing, " Phillips said of the good doctor 's art park. "It 's a masterpiece of that kind of art. It 's inspirational. "

Some might call Phillips, who is battling congestive heart failure and other ailments at his home in Nevada City, Calif., inspirational.

His many Madison friends have organized a benefit concert for Phillips, one of a series of such concerts across the country. It is Wednesday night at the Barrymore, and will feature local and regional artists including Lou and Peter Berryman, Anne Feeney, Ken Lonnquist, Larry Penn, Kris Adams, Stephen Lee Rich, John Wort Hannam, Tricia Alexander and David HB Drake. They 'll perform a song by Phillips and something of their own. The Madison show is dubbed a "birthday benefit, " since Phillips will turn 73 the next day.

In a note to Madison folk music fans, WORT-FM operators director Norm Stockwell, who has known Phillips for years, wrote of his friend 's Madison connection: "He has performed all over town -- at the UW Music Hall, Great Hall, the Madison Senior Center, and even once in a back yard off Johnson Street. His name and songs are known to young anarchists and old train buffs; to labor and anti-war activists; and those who simply love his humorous tales. "

Bruce "Utah" Phillips first appeared on the music scene in Greenwich Village, during what he has called "the great folk music scare of the 1960s. " Along with traveling and playing concerts, he has hosted radio shows, including a weekly program on National Public Radio; walked picket lines; boarded trains without benefit of a ticket; and been nominated for a Grammy Award.

Phillips ranks Madison among his favorite places to visit. He told me he first came in the early 1970s, invited by his friend Stockwell.

"The town just seemed so open and alive, " Phillips said. "It was convivial. And the bookstores! It 's hard when you 're on the road, but I would end up sending home boxes of books from Madison. "

Phillips paused and said: "Is the Statue of Liberty still on the lake? "

He would always eat breakfast, he said, at a cafe on State Street where he could look out the window. "That 's where I first saw Snowball. "

Phillips has a postcard of John "Snowball " Riley, a well-known Madison character who toward the end of his life earned a living washing windows on State Street. The pen and ink postcard drawing, by Muhamed Mousouf Aziz, was done shortly after Riley 's death, in 1975, and it sold out an initial run of 2,500.

Snowball stories abound in Madison, though they 're fading with the years. He was a sharp dresser, a lover of trains, horses, sports and women.

"He has always deserved a song, " Phillips said. "I 've got fragments written in my notebooks. "

I told him I would send him what further information I had on John "Snowball " Riley.

"If you do, I 'll finish the song, " Phillips said.

There might be one, too, in Dr. Evermor, the outsized artist near Baraboo whom Phillips met, as he did so many memorable characters, in between gigs in his travels.

"I have one of his smaller pieces in my back yard, " Phillips said. "It 's an insect. "

Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.