Arlo Guthrie – Here Come the Kids

ARLO GUTHRIE
Here Come the Kids
Rising Son Records 
arlo.net

The centennial of the birth of the great folksinger and prototypical songwriter Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was July 14, 2012. Since around that time Arlo Guthrie has been out on tour celebrating his father’s milestone with a tour – and now, a 2-CD live album recorded last October at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago – called Here Come the Kids.

While Arlo has usually included some Woody Guthrie songs in his concerts and on his albums, about half the songs in this set were written by Woody and most are introduced with stories – Arlo is a master storyteller with perfect timing – about Woody or the songs.

Among the classic Woody Guthrie songs are great versions of “Oklahoma Hills” (credited to Woody and his cousin, Jack Guthrie, who had a hit with it in 1945), “Pretty Boy Floyd,” “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).” “Do Re Mi,” and a sing-along version of Woody’s best known song, “This Land is Your Land.”  

“Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos),” by the way, is always considered to be part of the classic Woody Guthrie canon, but Woody's words about a tragic 1948 plane crash were set to music in the late-1950s by Martin Hoffman. More recently, Nora Guthrie, Arlo’s sister, has been commissioning many artists to set some of the 3000+ sets of Woody’s lyrics discovered in the Woody Guthrie Archives to music. Early in the concert, Arlo does a lovely version of “Mother’s Voice (I Hear You Sing Again,” Woody’s tribute to his mother and the songs he heard her sing, which was set to music by Janis Ian. And then, as the encore, he concludes the concert with the inspiring “My Peace,” set to music by Arlo himself.

Arlo also uses the concert to pay tribute to some of Woody’s friends and musical associates with versions of “St. James Infirmary,” learned from Cisco Houston, and “Alabamy Bound,” picked up via Lead Belly. Along the way, we also hear stories about other of Woody’s friends including Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

There are also some perennial favorites like Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans,” and Arlo’s

Mike Regenstreif and Arlo Guthrie (1996).

own “Motorcycle Song” and “Coming into Los Angeles.” The most poignant moment comes when Arlo sings a beautiful version of “Highway in the Wind,” the first song he wrote for Jackie Guthrie, his wife of 43 years, who succumbed to cancer on October 14, 2012, a year – almost to the day – before the concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music was recorded.

Throughout the concert Arlo receives tasteful backup from Bobby Sweet on guitar and fiddle and from longtime musical associates Terry A La Berry on drums and Abe Guthrie, Arlo’s son, on keyboards.

Arlo Guthrie is one of our finest live performers and superbly recorded live albums (credit Abe for that) like Here Come the Kids are the next best thing to being in the audience.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Folk Uke – Reincarnation

FOLK UKE

Reincarnation

Folk Uke

folkuke.com

I’m not sure how long they’ve actually been playing together but Folk Uke has been on my radar since 2005 when they released their first CD – just called Folk Uke – and it generated some significant airplay on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program. The duo of Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson blended their voices so simply and so beautifully, you’d swear they were sisters (I have heard Cathy singing with her real sisters and that sounds pretty great, too).

Although they’re not siblings, both Cathy and Amy do come from musical families. Cathy is one of several musically talented children of old friend Arlo Guthrie (and grandchildren of Woody Guthrie) and Amy’s dad is Willie Nelson. Both fathers have contributed some back-up playing to both Folk Uke CDs.

Folk Uke’s style is seemingly simple -- mostly built around their voices which harmonize and intertwine so closely it’s hard to really tell who’s who, and their ukuleles (with Amy also playing guitar). Most of the back-up arrangements are low-key keeping most of the attention most of the time on Cathy and Amy. But they simply ooze charm throughout most of the set, whether singing sweet love songs Harry Nilsson’s “He Needs Me” and “Reincarnation” or put-downs and break-up songs like “My Little Singer,” “Quattro Momento” and “Filthy Floors.”

Cathy and Amy also show they can be artistically fearless by taking a bitterly ironic approach – which risks misinterpretation – to the subject of domestic violence in “I Miss My Boyfriend.” While they sing from the perspective of a woman missing her abusive boyfriend, Shooter Jennings speaks from jail as the violent boyfriend.

Folk Uke’s harmonies and stripped down approach is a delight to hear.

BTW, along with Cathy and Amy, some other progeny of musical parents contributed to this album. Cathy’s brother, Abe Guthrie, played piano and bass and co-produced the sessions; Shooter Jennings, who plays the role of the incarcerated boyfriend in “I Miss My Boyfriend,” is Waylon Jennings’ son; Casey Kristofferson, who co-wrote “Blessed and Cursed” is the daughter of Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge; and Gabriel Rhodes, who was one of the album’s recording engineers, is the son of Kimmie Rhodes.

--Mike Regenstreif

The Guthrie Family Rides Again concert coming to Ottawa and Montreal; Arlo Guthrie – Tales of ’69; Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion – Folksong

The Guthrie Family Rides Again concert tour is coming to Ottawa (October 28) and Montreal (October 29) with Arlo Guthrie, his children and grandchildren.

Arlo, son of the legendary Woody Guthrie, has become a folk legend in his own right over the past four decades. He’s a brilliant performer and a longtime friend of Folk Roots/Folk Branches. His last concert in Montreal – December 6, 1996 – was a Folk Roots/Folk Branches presentation and he was a guest on the show twice, in 1998 and 2004, in interviews recorded during the Ottawa Folk Festival. I’ve laughed harder listening to Arlo tell stories than I ever have listening to any standup comedian.

Joining Arlo for this concert are his son, Abe Guthrie, who played keyboards with Arlo at the 1996 concert; his daughter, Cathy Guthrie, whose duo Folk Uke – with Willie Nelson’s daughter Amy – has been heard on Folk Roots/Folk Branches; his daughter and son-in-law, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, who I booked at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival back in 2001 and who have also been guests on Folk Roots/Folk Branches; his daughter, Annie Guthrie; and a bunch of fourth generation Guthries – Woody’s great-grandchildren.

I expect amazing, memorable concerts.

The Ottawa concert, a fundraiser for the Ottawa Folk Festival, is Wednesday, October 28, 8:00 pm, at the Dominion Chalmers United Church, 355 Cooper Street. Call the Ottawa Folk Festival at 613-230-8234 for tickets.

The Montreal concert is Thursday, October 29, at the Outremont Theatre, 1248 Bernard West. Call Hello Darlin’ Productions at 514-524-9225 for tickets.

Arlo and Sarah Lee and Johnny have recently released concert recordings.

ARLO GUTHRIE
Tales of ‘69
Rising Son
arlo.net

In the summer of 1969, just before performing at Woodstock, and just before the release of the movie version of Alice’s Restaurant, an Arlo Guthrie concert was recorded and the tapes sat in Arlo’s archives for nearly 40 years. It’s a trip back to a trippy time – there are multiple instances of the word ‘groovy’ – that will be best appreciated by people my age and older who have some memory of the culture and politics and appreciate early Arlo albums like Alice’s Restaurant, Arlo, Running Down the Road and Washington County.

Some of the material is familiar. “The Unbelievable Motorcycle Tale” is a shaggy dog version of “The Motorcycle Song”; “Coming Into Los Angeles” was a Woodstock hit; and “You Would Just Drop By” later surfaced on Washington County, my favourite of Arlo’s early albums.

Then there’s a version of “Alice’s Restaurant” unlike any I’ve ever heard before that has nothing to do with picking up the garbage or sitting on the Group W bench. This version, apparently one of three that Arlo was doing back in the day, involves rainbow-coloured roaches, American, Russian and Chinese scientists and politicians and everyone getting bombed. It’s hilarious, but like I mentioned, best appreciated by those who’ll understand the cultural and political references. You kind of need to know who people like Lyndon and Hubert were.

There are also three of Arlo’s songs from that era – “If Ever I Should See the Mountain,” “Road to Everywhere” and “Hurry to Me” – that have never been released before and that have a kind of folk-raga feel to them.

SARA LEE GUTHRIE & JOHNNY IRION
Folksong
Rte. 8
sarahleeandjohnny.com

Folksong is a two-disc package documenting a concert that Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion did at the Tales from the Tavern concert series in Santa Ynez, California in 2008. The first disc is an audio CD and the second is a DVD with all but one of the CD’s songs and three that aren’t on the CD.

Sarah Lee and Johnny showed a lot of promise when I brought them to the Champlain Valley Folk Festival eight years ago. In the years since, they’ve matured as songwriters and have learned to blend their voices in beautiful harmonies. Sarah Lee has also inherited her father and grandfather’s storytelling talents and is utterly charming introing “Exit 49” with a with an Arlo-worthy monologue.

All but the title track were written by Sarah Lee and/or Johnny. “Folksong” is a set of Woody's lyrics, circa 1950, from the Woody Guthrie Archives in which they explain to each other how to write a folksong. In a moment best appreciated on the DVD, their young daughter, Olivia, joins them on stage to sing the chorus.

--Mike Regenstreif