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Courtesy photo

America’s first family of folk music (from left) Abe, Annie, Arlo, Sarah Lee and Cathy Guthrie are continuing the traditions started by musical icon Woody Guthrie, Arlo’s father.
(Click picture for full size image)

Courtesy photo

Arlo Guthrie has been entertaining audiences with original music, as well as the songs of his father, Woody, and folk music legend Pete Seeger, for more than 40 years.
(Click picture for full size image)

Guthries going great guns on Legacy Tour
Audiences help celebrate four generations of Guthrie classics
by Jim Crawford

SCOTTSDALE – Perhaps if you live in a cave in Borneo, you might not be familiar with Arlo Guthrie.

But to thousands of survivors of the ‘60s and ‘70s, the name evokes fond memories.

Arlo, the son of Woody Guthrie, has been delighting audiences with his own music and colorful stories for nigh onto 40 years, and he’s still going strong.

Woody was one of the great singer/songwriters of the 20th century and a forerunner of the then burgeoning folk music craze of the 1940s. Woody lost the battle with Huntington’s Disease, an incurable degenerative nerve disorder, in 1967.

Arlo was seemingly born with a guitar in his hands, inheriting his father’s gift of music and self‑expression that has earned him legions of followers all over the world.

The song, “Alice’s Restaurant,” released in 1967, brought Arlo to the attention of the world and helped create a new awareness to social activism among the Baby Boomer generation.

In 1969, the movie “Alice’s Restaurant,” starring Arlo, made his name a household word.

Currently on the last leg of The Guthrie Family Legacy Tour, which has been on the road for the better part of a year, Arlo has enlisted the help of his son Abe, daughter Sarah Lee, son‑in‑law Johnny Irion and multi‑instrumentalist Gordon Titcomb to help him celebrate four generations of Guthrie music. They are performing Woody’s and Arlo’s signature tunes as well as their own original material.

“We just realized there are only three or four weeks left on the tour and we’re getting a little sentimental,” says Sarah Lee from a tour stop in Bremerton, Washington. “The tour has gone really good. So good in fact, we’re thinking about doing it again.”

Sarah Lee found her musical calling at the ripe old of age of 18 after she began dating Irion.

“He taught me a few chords and I liked it,” she says. “I had never really thought about being a musician. Then my dad invited me to play with him on stage. That’s where I really learned fast. When you’re on stage in front of 10,000 people, you don’t want to make yourself look bad.

“I’ve got a great dad who’s allowed me to be a part of his career,” Sarah Lee adds. “He didn’t try to fight it. He’s been really open to letting us grow and learn. It’s been 10 years for me and time has just flown by.”

It must be genetics.

The Guthrie offspring, Abe, Sarah Lee, Annie and Cathy are all involved in some facet of the music business. Abe and Sarah Lee are the performers while Annie heads the main office in Washington, Mass., and Cathy runs Rising Son Records, the family record company, from its headquarters in Austin, Texas.

“We all kind of have our own thing going on,” Sarah Lee says. “When we get together, we all play music and have a great time.”

Sarah Lee has high praise for Arlo’s latest release, a collaboration with friends John Nardolillo and George Massenburg to create a recording of Arlo with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.

Recorded during the spring of 2006, the live concert will be released on Arlo’s 60th birthday, July 10, 2007. The new recording is called “In Times Like These.”

“George did an incredible job with his(Arlo’s) voice on this one,” Sarah Lee says. “I think for once Dad is really proud of this one. I think they created some magic on it.”

Johnny Irion considers himself to be associated with Arlo. Besides landing a lovely wife, he has a father‑in‑law to compare notes.

“He’s taught me some stuff,” Irion says of Arlo. “He’s really fluent on the guitar. There are people who can fingerpick, and then there are people who can really fingerpick. He’s just a phenomenal fingerpicker. Plus he’s a great piano player, a great writer, and of course, a great poet. He’s fueled my career. People like to come back to see him. There’s no hidden agenda. What you see is what you get.”

An acclaimed singer/songwriter in his own right, Irion and Sarah Lee are poised to carry on the traditions of some of the great country male/female duos.

The pair has been compared to Johnny Cash and June Carter and Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.

Pretty heady company.

Irion said the Legacy Tour has been a lot of fun.

“It’s different for us as artists,” he says. “In the past we’ve opened for Arlo. This tour is very interactive. It feels like a family band.

“Arlo opened the door for us,” he says fondly. “It took a lot of guts to take us with him. He’s laid his career on the line.”

Sounds like it’s paying off for everyone.

The Guthrie Family Legacy Tour rolls into Scottsdale at 7:30 p.m., April 28, at Scottsdale Civic Center Mall Amphitheater.

Tickets are $36 from the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts box office at (480) 994‑2787 or online at scottsdaleperformingarts.org. The amphitheater is located on the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall at 75th and Main streets.

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