An Evening with Arlo

I first heard the music of Arlo Guthrie in the late fall of 1981, or what I like to call the “Season of the initial death throes of any aspirations I might have had toward a college degree”.

(And that whole college experience/thing is a another great narration, but we’ll have to save it for later.)

But like most of my musical awareness, it came to me by accident. A friend had given me a tape, and with not even so much as an intro or description of who he was,,, I suppose he thought that I was hip enough to know, and so I just popped into the player and listened. I liked the music, and I really enjoyed his stage presence, but like most other things of any cultural significance at that time in my life.. I didn’t catch the ‘big picture’.

Arlo is the son of the legendary American songwriter and folk music balladeer Woody Guthrie, who wrote This Land is Your Land, and Oklahoma Hills (which by the way, is now the official state song of Oklahoma). It is often said about a number of entertainers, but Woody, with over 3000 songs to his credit, truly was years ahead of his time.



Woody’s son, however, is also a brilliant musician in his own right. Having grown up with friends like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, Arlo cut his teeth on pretty much everything considered sacred to folk/rock/protest music. He is has the definitive recording of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans”, and you could not mention Arlo Guthrie in the same breath without a nod toward “Alice’s Restaurant”.

So years passed, and every so often I’d pull out that tape of “One Night” and give a listen for a few days before tossing it back into the box… never thinking that I should probably make a copy.. that it would always just ‘be there’ – and fortunately, it always has been. During those years I was able to learn and fill in the blank spots in my musical education about just how important the music of Woody was to the Union Protest scene and every other ‘Cause for Folk and Right’ over the past 80 years. Somehow I don’t think that this visit with Mr. Guthrie would have been the same without the 20-plus year wait though.

Looking back, I guess you could say that I’ve been pretty lucky with regard to the music that I love and play, because I have been blessed to be able to ‘pick’ with just about every hero of mine.. Some of them I call by name and we stay in touch by phone or mail. It’s been nice. And too, I’ve been able to see most of them live on several occasions and meet with them back stage and catch up on gossip, etc. But the one performer I’ve always wanted to see live, and still hadn’t, was Arlo.

This past November, as a birthday present, someone gave me tickets to see him live. Finally! And they were good seats too; row C, orchestra.. very nice, indeed. I don’t think the givers had any idea what it might really mean to me, except they were aware that I loved that ‘type’ of music and would most likely enjoy an evening out.

The performance was beyond anything I’d ever hoped.. it was so much more than just good music and great, light-hearted humor. Now 60 years old, and a grandfather, this was not the Arlo of old. The rough-edged Arlo .. the Arlo with something to prove. But rather, this was a much more mellow, ‘don’t-have-anything-to-prove', and 'comfortable-in-his-own-skin' Arlo, who looked as if his true and natural place in the universe was on that stage, and connecting with that audience… on that night.



He told of how the story of Alice’s Restaurant originated, and the roll that he actually played in it. It turns out that Alice’s Restaurant wasn’t really a restaurant at all, but an old church where she would serve Thanksgiving dinner to the less fortunate – “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant – excepting Alice”… Arlo has since purchased that property and begun his own worship center which will be a testament to honor All faiths. When one of his friends asked him: “What on Earth kind of church are you going to have there??” He replied, after much thought: “It’s gonna be kind of a ‘bring-your-own-God’ kind of church". Something about that sat very well with me and made me smile.

Adding to the experience was to see him accompanied by his oldest son, Abe, and daughter Sara Lee and husband, Johnny Irion. (and what a neat concept for a family band, hmmm? A father, son and daughter, hmm?? http://theuntoldriches.com) But they were all equally gifted entertainers, having one goal in mind: To give the audience what they came for.

It would be difficult to describe what the evening meant to me personally, but suffice it to say that it was, in some ways, one of coming full circle for me as a musician.

It was a nice break, and just one of those evenings that made you glad to be around.