So it went as the evening progressed. With each song's introduction revealing a little bit more about Arlo, allowing us to get to know him a little better, the songs became more and more personal messages from him to us. Songs like "Coming Into Los Angles" become funnier and in some ways more poignant when he talks of being searched four times while walking through the airport terminal. Especially when he tries to explain to the security personnel that "I've never become the threat I hoped to."
Of course some things have changed in this world in the past 40 years, and to prove it he recounted an incident where he and his son Abe were waiting in a departure lounge for a plane, and he noticed two very obvious Secret Service agents across the way. "Being a child of the sixties, of course my first reaction upon seeing them was uh, oh."
Sure enough one of them marches over and stand towering over him and gruffly demands if he is "Guthrie." When Arlo confesses that yes, that's who he is, the agent stares at him and then: "Guthrie, are you bringing in a couple of keys?" and cracks a big smile. He'd grown up with the music and loved it. Bought some pins and a baseball cap.
There were two songs he played that I'd never heard before. One was a song he wrote during Hurricane Katrina and the other was a song his father had written out lyrics for but had never had the chance to write the music to. (Arlo's sister has been spending the past 10 years organizing and arranging for this material to be recorded. Billy Bragg recorded a whole album of them called Mermaid Avenue named for the street the Guthrie family lived on in New York City.) It was probably one of the last songs Woody wrote, because it was shortly after that he had to be hospitalized, and he was already losing the ability to control his hands.
"My Peace" is only two verses long, but it's a beautiful song about the ability we all have to bring a little peace with us where ever we go, and what a wonderful gift it is to share it with others. While listening to this I couldn't help but get a mental image of Woody hunched over a scrap of paper (according to Arlo you'd have not wanted his dad as a house guest, unless you wanted to wake up in the morning and find every surface in your house not moving covered in song lyrics) with his hand curled around a pen forcing it to write out the words to the song in his head.
Article comments
1 - Lono
Arlo is great. I have seen him play a few times, and met him after each show. Dude is a very good guy, and a great storyteller.
2 - Scott Butki
Excellent review. I'm jealous you got to hear him
sing Alice.
3 - Gale
The review is excellent. As to Arlo, I am very happy to know that something so good is lasting so well. I saw him in Santa Monica in 1968 and heard "Alice's Restaurant" when it was relatively new. I agree that his humanity is a most important part of why he is exceptional and I hope we have the man and his music for many years to come.
4 - Steven Gotz
I saw Arlo the last couple of nights in a row at Epcot Center (Disney World in FLorida). When he broke into Alice's Restaurant during his final set of the night, the crowd went nuts. When he did it again the next night, I had an HDV camcorder focused on him.
So I now have him in HD with reasonably good sound. This is something I will be showing to guests in my home for years to come.
I hated to miss tonight's shows, but I may just have to see all three sets on his last night (tomorrow).
5 - da Cat
I heard him sing "Alice" when I was lucky enough to get tickets for his concert in Sarasota FL.
First time I ever heard the song, for I am only 21 years old, but I instantly fell in love with his personality and his way of entertaining his "friends", corse thats how he made me feel.
And the song that keeps on swinging through my brain is "my peace" wich I love and adore in the beauty of its simplicity.
just thought Id let you know.
More or less, I experienced the Concert the same as richard, and will never forget those once in a lifetime goosebumps-breeding rollercoaster ride two hours of living music culture
6 - smack
I was at this Arlo concert in Kingston. It was a mystical, magical night. Contact me for a recording of this concert. Thanks for the review.
7 - Tina C
I have seen Arlo @ our local symphany hall, I also was gifted by a performance on July 7 2007,@ the "Church" in Housatonic(Great Barrington, Mass.) The Church in Alice's restaurant. I can't believe how accurate this above article is. How the writer gets it so right. I watched Arlo that night of his birthday. He is a great performer and story teller and because his legend is so personal and more private than most performers, it makes it greater. I saw him once @ Chicopee High School, in Chicopee Massachusetts. I paid $5 for the ticket and everyone had to bring a non-perishable food item as it was a food bank drive. Arlo seems to find the best places to perform and we keep finding them. It is October 7, 2007, and my boyfriend and I are on our way to "The Church" again tonight to witness another enchanting perfomance by one of the greatest story tellers know to our generation. Thank you.