Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie has carried on his father, folk singer and social activist Woody Guthrie’s, musical legacy throughout his long career as a performer. That legacy has been passed on to his four children, all musicians, and his grandchildren. He frequently performs with his son, Abe.
Over his five-decade-long career he has also performed with the likes of Pete Seeger, David Bromberg, Cyril Neville, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Judy Collins, John Prine, Wesley Gray, Josh Ritter and others. But September 16th Guthrie will make a rare solo appearance on the Warner Theater’s Main Stage at 8PM.
The singer, who like his father before him, has been a social activist since his youth, exploded on the public’s consciousness at age 18 when he penned the preposterously long ballad, Alice’s Restaurant, which later became the basis for a movie. The 18-minute satirical talking blues tells the story of Guthrie’s brush with the law when he illegally dumped garbage from Ray and Alice Brock’s Thanksgiving dinner. His conviction for littering, ironically, made Guthrie ineligible for the draft during the Vietnam ware. The rambling monologue—which Guthrie only performs about ever 10 years nowadays—has become a Thanksgiving classic.
Guthrie followed that success in 1972 with the wistful City of New Orleans, penned by Steve Goodman, an anthem that was his biggest box-office hit.
During the last five decades Guthrie has toured throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, but his home base is much closer. In 1991 he bought the church that was Alice and Ray Brock's former home in Great Barrington and converted it to the Guthrie Center, an interfaith meeting place. The center provides weekly free lunches in the community and support for families living with HIV/AIDS as well as other life-threatening illnesses.
It also hosts a summertime concert series and Guthrie does six or seven fund-raising shows there every year.
Guthrie lives in Washington MA.
To purchase tickets, call the Warner Box Office at 860-489-7180 or visit the link below.
