An Evening with Arlo Guthrie and Family

                       

The Key West Theatre dates back to 1848 when it was build to serve as theBaptistt Church of Key West. It later became a dance club and a concert venue before being transformed into its current status as a fully working performing arts center. As such it presents music, concerts, theatrical, productions, comedy & variety specials and locally produced Key West events.

Small venues are my favorite way to see musical artists so I was happy to discover Arlo Guthrie would be in concert there during our stay in the Keys.

The surprise was the cabaret style of seating at narrow table set perpendicular to the stage with individual seats small enough to rival coach on an economy airline. Could be OK if you were with a group of friends, but otherwise too cramped and vulnerable to inebriated fans who alternated between shouting at the stage and bouts of ululation. My immediate neighbors were fine, Billy's not so much.

Nice concert from a musician who feels like an old friend and his extremely talented daughter, Sarah, Lee, and her husband.

This family has a rich musical history and has continued to be immersed in its development and performance.

Arlo established the Guthrie Foundation and Center. According to him  "The Foundation and the Center are dedicated to all those around the world who believe that there is one truth and infinite ways to approach it. As the world becomes smaller we must find ways to embrace the spiritual journeys of those whose traditions are different, without abandoning our own. We must also seek ways to preserve our greatest cultural heritage and find ways to support one another in difficult times. The skills needed for a healthy future are different from the ones needed to preserve the past, and both are required to live in the moment."


The following are excerpts from his official biography.

Arlo Guthrie was born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York in 1947. He is the eldest son of America's most beloved singer/writer/philosopher Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, a professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of The Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease.

He grew up surrounded by dancers and musicians: Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman and Lee Hays (The Weavers), Leadbelly, Cisco Houston, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, all of whom were significant influences on Arlo's musical career. Guthrie gave his first public performance in 1961 at age 13 and quickly became involved in the music that was shaping the world. Over the next few years, Arlo inherited his father's friend Pete Seeger and the two toured together, between demonstrations, beginning in the late 60's. They continued doing over a dozen shows together almost every year for the next 40 years creating a legendary collaboration that continues to this day. The last Pete & Arlo show was in November 2012 at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Arlo practically lived in the most famous venues of the "Folk Boom" era. In New York City he hung out at Gerdes Folk City, The Gaslight, and The Bitter End. In Boston's Club 47, and in Philadelphia he made places like The 2nd Fret and The Main Point his home. He witnessed the transition from an earlier generation of ballad singers like Richard Dyer-Bennet and blues-men like Mississippi John Hurt, to a new era of singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, Joan Baez, and Phil Ochs. He grooved with the beat poets like Allen Ginsburg and Lord Buckley and picked with players like Bill Monroe and Doc Watson. He learned something from everyone and developed his own style, becoming a distinctive, expressive voice in a crowded community of singer-songwriters and political-social commentators.

Arlo Guthrie's career exploded in 1967 with the release of "Alice's Restaurant", whose title song premiered at the Newport Folk Festival helped foster a new commitment among the '60s generation to social consciousness and activism. Arlo went on to star in the 1969 Hollywood film version of "Alice's Restaurant", directed by Arthur Penn. With songs like "Alice's Restaurant", too long for radio airplay; "Coming into Los Angeles", banned from many radio stations (but a favorite at the 1969 Woodstock Festival); and the definitive rendition of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans", Guthrie was no One-Hit-Wonder. An artist of international stature, he has never had a 'hit' in the usual sense. He has usually preferred to walk to his own beat rather than march in step to the drum of popular culture. Over the last five decades, Guthrie has toured throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia winning a wide, popular following. In addition to his accomplishments as a musician, playing the piano, six and twelve-string guitar, harmonica and a dozen other instruments, Arlo is a natural-born storyteller, whose tales and anecdotes figure prominently in his performances.


Arlo Guthrie, Rising Son Records and The Guthrie Center & Foundation are on the World Wide Web at http://www.risingsonrecords.com/