Guthrie's Message Falls on Friendly Ears

If you attended the show on March 26th with Arlo Guthrie at the Rococo Theatre, you were treated to an evening of merriment – and contemplation – that reached all generations.  He did at least as much storytelling as he did playing – solo – it was just him, 3 guitars, a 12-string, and a grand piano on stage.  Guthrie was in fine form, both musically and poetically.  Nary a missed note (though several jokes alluding to them), he picked and played his way through crowd favorites like “City of New Orleans,” “The Motorcycle Song,” and “Coming into Los Angeles.”

The focus of this tour, however, is the celebration of Arlo’s father, Woody Guthrie’s 100^th birthday.  Both generations made social issues a priority in their songwriting, and careers in general, and the stories told from decades ago still seem to resonate with audiences today.  Guthrie did a wonderful job of making present-day connections with his father’s songs and stories of the early 20^th century like, “1913 Massacre” and “Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).”

Indeed, it was a treat to hear songs written by Woody Guthrie, which were only recently put to music by his son and others.  Arlo closed the evening with a stirring, yet simple, rendition of “This Land Is Your Land.”  Even though some in the audience were ready to sing a long and a soft murmur settled over the crowd, it wasn’t until Guthrie came back out for the encore, when the audience was encouraged to participate. 

Once again emphasizing the power of a group of people singing all at once, Guthrie concluded with another one of his father’s songs, recently set to music.  Spreading peace and good will has always been a priority for Guthrie, and last night he had the help of a wonderfully receptive and responsive audience.  Truly, it felt more like a family reunion than a concert.

As witty and humorous as he is thought-provoking, Guthrie made nearly every story light-hearted, cracking jokes at every turn.  In fact, he was so effective that the audience even beat him to a punch line.  In a story about playing with another great folk legend, Pete Seeger says it’s time to hang it up; he can’t sing as well or play as well… Arlo says, “Well, look at our audience…”  Last night’s audience apparently related, because he had to pause for laughter before he said, “They don’t hear so well, so…”

In all, it was a beautiful, brisk night in Lincoln to enjoy an international folk legend among the company of friends.