Arlo Guthrie

Category: Concerts |

Attended an Arlo Guthrie concert on Sunday night - my kids won free tickets at Comfest earlier this Summer. Not going to do a full-on review as it’s not the type of music I typically write about here, but if you ever get the chance to see him live, I recommend it. You gotta appreciate your roots, y’know?

What I’d forgotten about Arlo, it being a long time since I last watched the movie ‘Woodstock’, is how much of a storyteller he is. He doesn’t just come out, mumble into the mike a few pleasantries and then plow through his set. Arlo makes you feel like you’re watching him jam out in his living room - his REALLY large living room. And he makes you wish he was your Uncle. He’d be your cool uncle, you just know it.

His backup musicians consisted of son Abe on keyboards and his grandson Krishna on drums - ”Boys Night Out” Arlo quipped while introducing them. No fancy stagings, just the three of them playing polished renditions of classics such as the mainstay “Alice’s Restaurant” (”Oh, a few of you have heard this one. I know I sure have”) to other hits such as “Darkest Hour” & “St. James Infirmary” all the way to civil war era tunes. Each song was played effortlessly, with craftsmanship only years on the road can hone, and with enough spirit & heart for everyone within earshot. Still protesting - absolutely, but in the way he always has; by making you think & by making you listen. Not shouting out his rhetoric, but instead spinning ideas into compositions, dreams into melodies.

I never really “got” the 60’s (heck, I was only 5 when they ended) but hearing Arlo made me understand the counter-culture just a little bit better. And for the first time, it made me wish I’d been older when it was going on.

(photo thanks to Dean Silver’s photostream on Flickr - Arlo at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival)