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Arlo Guthrie returned to Santa Barbara’s historic Lobero Theatre to play a sold-out concert on March 19.
The iconic singer-songwriter, most famous for his anti-war protest anthem, “Alice’s Restaurant,” celebrated the song’s 50th anniversary two years ago with a concert that was one of many that he has played at the Lobero. This year’s concert celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Alice’s Restaurant movie and featured three distinctive sets of music. The show was a musical evolution of the Woody Guthrie dynasty, one of America’s greatest protest folk singers and Arlo Guthrie’s father. Two of Arlo’s children also joined the show.
This most recent concert by Arlo Guthrie began with a long-lost animated video of one of his earliest and most popular tunes, “The Motorcycle Song.” As the video came to a close, Guthrie took the stage with a four-piece backing band that featured son Abe on keyboards.
The septuagenarian singer, with the same long, scraggy locks that he sported in the 1960s, albeit silver hair now, immediately launched into the same “Motorcycle Song” that had just shown on the video. The first set featured seven songs spanning Guthrie’s career, and the band was washed in a beautiful lighting display backed by an ever-changing multimedia presentation. The video featured old clips of the Guthrie heritage as well as beautiful graphics, adding an extra dimension to the performance.
The first set included several covers, including “Ukulele Lady” inspired by Guthrie’s friendship with Hawaiian slack key guitar veterans. He also covered “Gypsy Davy,” one of his father’s tunes, and a Bob Dylan song, “Gates of Eden.”
As always, Guthrie spent much of the concert telling stories, much like a traveling minstrel. He told a story before he launched into the Dylan tune about when he landed in Tucson, Ariz., in the early 1980s on the same day as Dylan. Just as he descended from the airplane onto the tarmac, a reporter put a mic in his face and shouted, “Arlo Guthrie, you are doing a concert here tomorrow night. Do you know that Bob Dylan is scheduled to do a concert here the same night as you?” Guthrie did not know. The reporter continued: “My question is, why should anyone go and see you?” Guthrie didn’t miss a beat: “Well, if you want to hear some good old Bob Dylan songs, I guess you’ll have to come to my show!”
At the time, Dylan was into his Christian gospel period and not performing his old songs, much to the disappointment of many of his fans attending his concerts. To Guthrie’s surprise, his quote, which he had meant as a joke, was in the local paper the next morning. Then he was nervous because he didn’t plan on playing any Dylan songs. So he locked himself in his room with a Dylan songbook and began to learn some of the songs he promised to do in Arizona.
After the seven-song opening set, Guthrie introduced daughter Sarah Lee, and she took over fronting the band as Guthrie retired backstage. Her eight-song set was compelling, featuring songs that she wrote as children’s songs at the request of the Smithsonian, a song for her mother who passed away five years ago from liver cancer and a song that she wrote featuring lyrics written by grandfather Woody Guthrie that were never recorded.
Much like her father and grandfather, Lee showed that she was a master storyteller as well as an accomplished musician. She told a riveting tale of how she wrote a song for her mom, Jackie. Her song was inspired by something her daughter said aboard a plane trip during a tour with her husband musician, Johnny Irion. She looked up and said to Lee, “Do you see Nana up there?” looking into the night. “What do you mean, honey?” Lee replied, and her young daughter said, “She’s an angel.” Playing along, Lee went on, “Oh, that’s a nice thing to say, honey.” “What do you mean, mom? She’s really up there.” Skeptical Lee played along, “What is she doing up there?” “Mom, she’s turning into a star.” From this conversation, Lee wrote “A Circle of Souls,” a haunting song from the perspective of her departed mother.
Lee ended her set with a cover of the classic folk tune “A Satisfied Mind,” which has been covered by countless Americana artists. The tune was co-written by Texas fiddle player Joe Herman “Red” Hayes. He wrote the song with songwriter Jack Rhodes. Hayes died onstage while touring in England in 1973.
Guthrie returned to the stage in the middle of the song, playing a second set of keyboards. The band then took a break.
After the intermission, a short film began on the screen featuring clips from the Alice’s Restaurant movie. As the film continued, Guthrie returned to play the 18-minute classic in its entirety with a few updates. It is hard to imagine how many times the feisty singer has repeated the song. Nevertheless, the master storyteller seemed to breathe new life into the song even in its infinite retelling.
Guthrie and the band followed with the hit song from his original Woodstock appearance in 1969, “Coming Into Los Angeles.” Guthrie mentioned that he was returning to the original site to play a concert this summer on the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. That show also will feature bands The Doobie Brothers and Santana. The final set of five songs also included Guthrie’s biggest hit, “City of New Orleans,” and a cover of the Woody Guthrie classic “This Land Is Your Land.”
The show ended with a standing ovation and an encore of another Woody Guthrie tune, “My Peace.” It was an incredible night of historical Americana, featuring the tunes of one of folk music’s greatest dynasties, the Guthries.
— L. Paul Mann is a Noozhawk contributing writer. The opinions expressed are his own.