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saljournal.com | Mar 11th 2011
By GARY DEMUTH Salina Journal
"Alice's Restaurant" might be folk music legend Arlo Guthrie's best-known
song, but don't expect him to play it in concert.
The epic tune, in which Guthrie combines a long spoken narrative with a
catchy, sung chorus, was a huge hit when released in 1967. It also was made
into a popular movie of the same name in 1969, helmed by "Bonnie and Clyde"
director Arthur Penn and starring Guthrie himself.
While Guthrie believes in performing songs people want to hear during his
live concerts, he saves "Alice's Restaurant" for special occasions.
"It's hard to perform and takes up about a half-hour, so I just do it on
anniversaries, like the 40th (in 2007)," Guthrie said in a telephone
conversation. "I wrote the song in 1965, so I'm off the hook until 2015."
Guthrie sings plenty of other well-known hits in concert, including "City of
New Orleans," "Coming into Los Angeles," "The Motorcycle Song" and the
stirring anthem written by his father, the late folk and protest
singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land."
"I don't have a stagnant set list," Guthrie said of his concert song list.
"It depends on what mood the crowd is in."
An upbeat, fun evening
Guthrie will perform Thursday at the Stiefel Theatre for the Performing
Arts, 151 S. Santa Fe.
Opening for Guthrie will be The Burns Sisters, a trio of sisters from
upstate New York who perform a harmonious blend of folk, country and
bluegrass.
Guthrie previously performed in Kansas at the Orpheum Theatre in Wichita in
early 2010. Former Orpheum Theatre director J Basham, who booked Guthrie,
said the musician played for a enthusiastic, sold-out crowd.
"It's an upbeat, fun evening," Basham said. "He's a storyteller and very
funny. He brings the audience into it, even if they're sitting way in the
back. Songs like 'This Land is Your Land' have the whole audience singing
with him. It's one of the better concerts we've done here."
A famous father
Guthrie, born in 1947 in Coney Island, New York, is the eldest son of Woody
Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, a professional dancer with the Martha
Graham Company.
Young Arlo grew up surrounded by some of the greatest musicians of their
era, including Pete Seeger and The Weavers, Leadbelly, Cisco Houston,
Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
But to Arlo, these legendary musicians were just his father's friends.
"When you're a little kid, your world is very small," he said. "This family
circle of friends was normal to me. I didn't know they were great musicians.
I didn't even know my father was well-known outside of the family."
It wasn't long, however, before Arlo joined the family business and made his
debut as a folk musician in 1961 at the age of 13.
"That's 50 years ago that I played in front of a crowd of people for the
first time," he said.
Rejected by the Army
Just four years later, the 18-year-old wrote a song based on "real life
events." Called up by the U.S. Army for a draft examination during the
Vietnam war, young Arlo was rejected as unfit for military service because
of a criminal record -- a single arrest, fine and clean-up order for
littering and creating a public nuisance on Thanksgiving Day in 1965.
The song was recorded in 1966 and released in 1967. After Guthrie debuted
the song at the Newport Folk Festival, it became one of the biggest hits of
its era.
The 18 minutes and 20 seconds of the narrative were exactly the same length
as one of the famous gaps in former President Richard Nixon's Watergate
tapes, Guthrie said.
"I just kept adding to the narrative because it was so frickin' funny," he
said.
The 1969 movie, along with "Easy Rider," was one of the few movies made
during the 1960s that dealt with the political and social issues of the
time, Guthrie said.
"It wasn't a great movie, but it was a timely one," he said.
Playing at Woodstock
The same year, Guthrie played at the legendary Woodstock festival, and his
performance was documented by filmmaker Michael Wadleigh in his documentary
of the same name.
After "Alice's Restaurant," Guthrie's best known song is one he didn't
write: "City of New Orleans." The song was given to him in 1972 by
songwriter Steve Goodman, Guthrie said, "A man I had just met."
"He wanted me to do something with it," Guthrie said. "So we did it about
seven different ways, from rock to country, until we finally decided to let
a great song speak for itself."
Calm, with a social bite
Salinan Mike Mattson, who performs as a folk duo with fellow musician Teresa
Weaver, has performed "City of New Orleans" as well as several Woody Guthrie
songs in concert.
"They're easy to sing, easy to remember, and that's what makes a good song,"
he said.
Arlo Guthrie is a singer/songwriter who has stayed true to himself through
the years, Mattson said.
"He's not wildly popular on the radio now, but he's stayed true to what he
does," Mattson said. "He still has a bit of social bite about him but has a
calm that allows people to accept him and relate to him. And there's plenty
to sing about nowadays."
His son's in the band
After nearly 50 years as a singer/songwriter, Guthrie still is involved in
social and political causes. In 1991, he bought the church at which the
events took place that inspired "Alice's Restaurant" and turned it into The
Guthrie Center, a nonprofit interfaith church foundation dedicated to
providing a wide range of local and international services.
A separate nonprofit educational organization, The Guthrie Foundation,
addresses such issues as the environment, health care, cultural preservation
and educational exchange.
"We try to keep the best of the 1960s alive," Guthrie said.
Guthrie and his band, which includes son Abe on keyboards and vocals, still
tour continuously, attracting audiences of all ages and social status.
Nicer than Woodstock
"We have people of all stripes at our concerts," he said "There's some of my
father's peers, my peers and younger people, too. People on the left and
right, rich and poor. All these people are singing together and sharing
together, and that's a great thing to see. It's nicer than Woodstock."
nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at
[email protected].
Original Page:
http://www.saljournal.com/entertainment/story/Arlo-Guthrie-3-11
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