Okay so I’m a fan. Oh yes I am. The first time I saw Arlo was when I was about 15 and I was wagging school (not that I would recommend anyone do that – Kids! Go to School!). Anyway, I was wagging school and the midday movie came on. I was working up a prizewinning yawn when I spotted ‘a red V dubbayah micro bus’ and I was sold, hook, line and sinker. My eyes were glued to the tube and by the end of the next week I knew every word to Alice’s Restaurant and was, of course, in love with Arlo Guthrie.
Unlike a lot of musos of that era, Arlo has aged with poise, and a quick flip through YouTube will be an easy way to waste and entire afternoon, just as much from his new clips as the classics. You will discover that he still has his voice and the ability to turn a song introduction into an epic journey to the centre of something.
Arlo Guthrie was born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other. He is the son of America’s most beloved singer/writer/philosopher Woody Guthrie. Had he lived, Woody would have celebrated his one hundredth birthday in 2012. Like his father before him, Arlo is a master storyteller and raconteur. He grew up surrounded by musicians like Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman and Lee Hays (The Weavers), Leadbelly, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. He witnessed the transition from an earlier generation of ballad singers and bluesmen to a new era of singer/songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Phil Ochs. 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.
Guthrie’s career exploded in 1967 with the release of Alice’s Restaurant, whose title song premiered at the Newport Folk Festival and helped foster a new commitment among the 60s generation to social consciousness and activism. Arlo then went on to star in the 1969 Hollywood film version of Alice’s Restaurant.
With songs like Alice’s Restaurant, Coming into Los Angeles and the definitive rendition of Steve Goodman’s City of New Orleans, Guthrie was no one hit wonder. As a performer and raconteur, he holds an audience in thrall with stories of life on the road and performers past and present. An artist of international stature, he has never had a ‘hit’ in the usual sense. He has preferred to walk to his own beat rather than march in step to the drum of popular culture.
Arlo is supported on his forthcoming tour by husband and wife duo, daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion.
And while I am giving away secrets of my misspent and otherwise youth, I have to say I yearned for that red Kombi for years and owned a yellow one for a while, a vehicle that I loved and lost. But that 15 year old still lives strongly in my heart and I am in the process of painting my new Vee Dub bus purple as I type. Thanks, Arlo, your legend lives on, at least if nowhere else, in my garage.
Do not miss this show. Seriously. Get tickets – go see Arlo. You will not be disappointed.
Sunday March 3 Star Court Theatre – Lismore and Tuesday March 5, Twin Towns Services Club – Tweed Heads.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
