Guthrie Family Brings Folk To Storrs

A packed crowd at Jorgensen Center for Performing Arts awaited the heir of folk eminence, sitting comfortably at their amiable candlelit tables in the cabaret setup of the auditorium on Saturday at 8 p.m. They greeted Arlo Guthrie, son of American folk pioneer Woody, with a bombast of applause, as he sauntered over to a stool, followed by other notables of the Guthrie family legacy. His daughter, Sarah Lee, and her husband/musical partner Johnny Irion, arranged themselves to his left while his son, Abe, took to the keyboard to the right of him, nestling their father in a position he was quite familiar with - performing among kith and kin. Comfortably ensconced between members of nuclear family and friends he'd acquired as bandmates over the years, Guthrie addressed the audience with his good-natured, slightly southern twang. "We're gonna do somethin' a little different tonight," said Guthrie, "given we're not too normal to begin with," referring to the performance being the band's second in two nights at UConn. Arlo and company proceeded to dive into a rich, all member encompassing array of Guthrie family music. Arlo gave respectful nods to the man who started it all, playing plenty of his father's tunes. He allowed Sarah Lee and Johnny the spotlight to display newer songs appearing on their 2005 release, "Exploration." Most importantly, he didn't let the crowd down by playing the timeless Thanksgiving classic "Alice's Restaurant." The song was played after a brief intermission where members of the crowd could be seen alternating positions in their seats to give one another back massages, or heard complaining about the nuisance of having to pick up a teenage daughter from a dance after the show. Their age, which could have allowed many to see Arlo perform the song stoned at Woodstock, or perhaps even a gig of his father's, didn't stop them from a boisterous rejoicing of the song's emergence at the show. Their collective volume exceeded the sound leaking out of the venue's speakers as they warmly greeted the famous chorus, "You can get anything you want/ at Alice's Restarant." Arlo kept the crowd smiling with hysterical anecdotes of life as a Guthrie and his curious musings on as varied of subjects as canine airport security ("I wanna know who the guy is who smelled airports to figure out that it was a good idea to have dogs do it"), having children ("theyre like songs- you don't really know if they're any good until you've tried 'em on other people"), and the church that brought on the 'Alice's Restaurant' adventure- which he recently bought ("it's a bring your own God church- you bring yours and I'll bring mine. Ain't that kindness?") He played up the fact that he's long been known as a heavy toker, and uninhibitedly adressed the subject, telling the crowd he hasn't smoked in years. Former pothead or not, Guthrie seamlessly segued between songs and narratives with a deftness that can only come from years of experience, though Guthries may have a bit of an advantage. He took a break from his congenial quips to get sentimental before playing his well known "City of New Orleans" during the first half of his set. He reminisced about the golden age of political activism of the 1960s, saying, "It was like there was a glitch in the system, songs were actually about somethin', sometimes even important things." Arlo, like his father, is a dedicated activist. His interfaith church, which he renamed The Guthrie Center offers various public services, such as HIV/AIDS services and an walk-a-thon to raise awareness and money for a cure for Huntington's Disease, according to arlo.net. He discussed going back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and humbly told the crowd, "we're goin' back next year." Though he appears to be following in his father's widely extolled footsteps with his active social conscience, he assured onlookers Woody never put much pressure on him. "In our family, it didn't matter what you sang or wrote about, it was just if you didn't do somethin' from time to time you got your butt kicked." The show was certainly a family affair, as Abe's daughter and Arlo's granddaughter coyly took the stage for a rendition of "Jingle Bells" on her clarinet. She struggled through notes as her family patiently provided a stable backing track. Nathan Bean, 1st-semester speicial education major, felt a connection to their loose stage presence. When asked what he liked most about the show, he answered, "The stories, man. I'm very close to this kind of lifestyle. I'm huge on this genre. Folk music is not really performed, it's shared. You go to a rock show, they just blast their own songs into your ears for a half an hour. At a folk show like Arlo's they really make the music your own as much as theirs." Bean was going to meet up with his parents at a Connecticut Folk Festival the next morning. Arlo and his band delighted Bean and the rest of the crowd by returning after their second set, moved by a standing request for an encore. He finished up the show with two songs written by his father. He played the masterpiece "This Land is Your Land," which prompted another hearty sing-along from the crowd, and punctuated the song with a trademark irreverent, downplayed jab at the establishment delivered with down to earth simplicity. He talked about how hard it would be to make a good contribution to a Utopia where peace and love is commonplace. "In a world that sucks, you don't have to do much at all," he suggested, sending a wave of laughter and applause through the crowd. The final song was a scrapped piece Woody had written only lyrics for. Arlo noted this wasn't out of the ordinary for a man like his father, a man "who'd buy a car, finish the gas tank, and give it to someone else, but that wasn't the kind of guy you'd want in your house." He explained that Woody would further his generalized reciprocty ideal in action in all places. He wouldn't hesitate to write on anything he could find in his friends' residences, including toilet paper and walls. This created a secret artillery of incomplete Woody songs that are still being found today. The growing list of new found songs has inspired an effort from Arlo's sister, Nora Guthrie, to prolong her father's legacy. She started the project of enlisting current bands to write the music to his unifinished songs, the most noteworthy of which being Wilco and Billy Bragg's 1998 "Mermaid Avenue." Arlo's closer was one of those procured gems he coined the music to. Before launching into the finale, he described the song in contrast to the "big piece" he had just played. "This is the little piece that makes people smile when they see ya, babies like ya, dogs lick ya. I'm sure if people paid more attention to the little piece," he continued, "the big one would just work itself out."