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Posted: Thursday, April 30, 2009Arlo Guthrie Performs at Buffalo State
By Mark Norris
“The New York State Thruway’s closed, man!” Arlo Guthrie uttered those immortal words 40 years ago to half a million concertgoers at the Woodstock festival. And audiences have been shouting it back to him ever since.
Guthrie appears at the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall on Wednesday, May 6, at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale now at theRockwell Hall Box Office, available online or by phone at 878-3005.
Like a catchphrase, a familial legacy can be a hard thing to overcome. For many musicians, having a famous relative can be an outright burden. Yet for Arlo Guthrie, being the son of Woody Guthrie, one of this country’s most revered singer-songwriters, hasn’t impeded his success one bit. The younger Guthrie has embraced his musical heritage while garnering his own fame and glory.
The younger Guthrie’s freewheeling brand of folk music first earned the songwriter an international audience in 1967, the year his song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” was released. An autobiographical epic detailing the musician’s arrest for littering, the song marked Guthrie as part of the new generation of outspoken young lyricists.
Both the song and the litter have since moved into history. An envelope containing the refuse that led to Guthrie’s arrest is now part of the American Popular Song exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Guthrie has made a bit of history himself. With a career that spans four decades and 25 recordings, the musician has become a folk luminary in his own right and has used his fame for a greater good. In 1991, Guthrie purchased the old Trinity Church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, which provided the setting and inspiration for “Alice’s Restaurant.” Reopened as the Guthrie Center, this not-for-profit foundation provides health care, food services, and education to the local community.
In recent years, Guthrie’s recordings have come full circle. A re-recorded version of the Alice’s Restaurantalbum was released in 1997, and a collection of his father’s songs, Woody’s 20 Grow Big Songs, was issued as a children’s album in 2005. Arlo Guthrie now regularly records and performs with his own family.
