Welcome to the New 12th Gate Coffee House!
Tonight we take a second look at the achievements of Arlo Guthrie. Rather than focusing on his more well-known performances like Alice’s Restaurant or The City of New Orleans, I wanted to look at some work that is less popular, but – in so many ways – just as good.
I thought I would start though with a performance of “This Land is Your Land” made famous, of course by his father Woody. This is taped with the Boston Pops. We are blocked from embedding, but please feel free to watch it on you-tube, then hit back to return.
In addition to being a great singer, Arlo is a great story teller. When Arlo was three, the folk group, the Weavers cracked the Top 40 with Tzena Tzena. One can imagine Arlo as a kid, hearing that record a million times, not knowing what the Hebrew meant and making up a shaggy dog story to go with it, just like Woody would have done…He has been doing it ever since. A very young Arlo!
This is a classic, a bit irreverent – but it got eclipsed by other songs. Thank God for the Narcs
Last year Arlo campaigned for Ron Paul. That was unfortunate, but it did become the occasion for a re-make of Tom Paxton’s song I’m changing my name to Chrysler – At the Guthrie Center Church, October 11, 2008.
I thought we could close with a performance of Amazing Grace. You would notice that Pete Seeger is on stage as well. Live at Wolftrap, August 8, 1993.
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Links
Have a great week!
Oh, that’s fun!
Delightful! Music and stories – who could ask for more. I looked at the length of the Amazing Grace video and thought there must be a story in there… just as relevant, or maybe even more, today than in 1993.