Tombaugh Gallery hosts exhibit songs of local folk singer

Tombaugh Gallery will host an invitational exhibit focusing on the songs of the folk singer Phil Ochs, the gallery said in a news release.

The exhibit opens with a reception 11 a.m.-1:3p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, at the gallery, 2000 S. Solano Drive. A second reception will be held 6-8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, at the gallery, and is expected to include live music.

The show will continue through Saturday, Jan. 28.

Ochs was born in 1940 in El Paso. He died in 1976. Ochs released eight albums and nine singles. His best-selling album was “Pleasures of the Harbor” (1967).

A Still Small Voice (ASSV) nonprofit is sponsoring the art show, as it has done in the past, said ASSV founders Ron and Kathy Cooke.

They are offering a $100 prize for the artist whose work is the best interpretation of the Ochs song "When I'm Gone." The song, which Ochs wrote in 1966, includes these lyrics:

“Won’t see the golden of the sun when I’m gone

And the evenings and the mornings will be one when I’m gone

Can’t be singing louder than the guns when I’m gone

So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here.”

“ASSV supports various activities in this area as well as in the Capital District of New York, where we spend half the year,” the Cookes said.

Ochs’ songs “addressed social issues of his time, most of which are pertinent today. Through art shows, folk concerts, scholarships and awards to artists, singer/songwriters and academic researchers, A Still Small Voice seeks to bring Phil's music and dedication to social justice to today's audience.

Tombaugh Gallery, located at Unitarian Universalist Church, 2000 S. Solano Drive, is open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday.

Visit www.assv4u.com and www.uuchurchlc.org/about-us/our-art-gallery.