ARLO GUTHRIE was practically born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other. As the son of iconic Depression-era singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie and professional dancer Marjorie Greenblatt he was drawn to performing from almost his first step.
After attending university in Massachusetts in the early 1960s Arlo became a singer of protest songs and was a very vocal opponent of the Vietnam War draft. In 1969 Guthrie made a memorable appearance at the Woodstock Festival alongside fellow protest singers Joan Baez and Richie Havens.
Arlo’s style of talking blues has become a firm favourite with audiences over the years and the Róisín Dubh audience are in for a treat when he plays there on Tuesday January 20 at 9pm as part of his solo reunion tour. He will also play The Royal Castlebar Theatre on Saturday January 24.
Guthrie has many fond memories of playing Galway through the years. On one occasion in the early 1990s, he was joined on stage by his old buddy Donovan and together they re-created some of the magic of the 1960s folk era.
“I think that was one of my most enjoyable times,” Arlo tells me. “I’ve been to Galway about three times and I’ve always loved it because the people are just terrific. But when Donovan showed up it was totally out of the blue and I didn’t expect him at all.
“We got to spend a bit of time together and we almost never ever get to do that. He actually came to visit me about three months ago in the States after they’d just wrapped a movie about his life and we spoke about that night in Galway with fondness. It was terrific.”
Throughout his touring career Arlo has long found an affinity with Ireland and Scotland and this is no accident as they were originally the ancestral home of the Guthries.
“Initially the Guthries came from Forfor, near Dundee, in Scotland and then a few of them branched off and went to Ireland but they had to leave under some dubious circumstances!” says Arlo.
“I can actually tell you a very funny story about the Guthries in Scotland. There’s an old castle in Forfar which up until only recently was still in the family. Anyway, I went to see it about 20 years ago and there were all these portraits on the walls of the ancient Guthrie clansmen and I was looking at these and thinking to myself ‘Oh, my Lord, these are the ugliest people I’ve ever seen in my life.’
“It really scared the hell out of me and I thanked my lucky stars that some of them got out of Scotland and mixed up the gene pool a bit! They came to the States around 1820 and initially settled in South Carolina but then they eventually ended up in Texas for the few generations.”
Woody Guthrie purchased his first guitar in Pampa, Texas, when he went to visit his father Charles Guthrie there in the early 1930s. Over the next three decades Woody would travel the States charting the lives of working-class people in song.
He achieved success in Los Angeles in the late 1930s with his left-leaning Dust Bowl Ballads, around this same time John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes Of Wrath had also become popular.
There were many parallels drawn between the songs of Guthrie and the novels of Steinbeck and this led to a friendly rivalry between the pair.
“We’ve got a very funny letter that John Steinbeck sent my father in our archives,” says Arlo. “Back when the movie The Grapes Of Wrath had been released in 1940 my father went to see it and afterwards he wrote the song ‘Tom Joad’.
“When Steinbeck heard the song he wrote my father a little note that read: ‘You little bastard! How could you write in 12 verses what it took me an entire novel to say?’ I think most of these guys had a friendly sense of rivalry and a good sense of humour.
“Over the years I’ve become very good friends with Thomas Steinbeck [John’s son] and I suppose we both understand what it’s like to be sons of famous fathers.”
The Guthrie/Steinbeck connection continues today as Arlo’s daughter Sarah Lee is married to John Steinbeck’s grandnephew Johnny Irion and they have a young daughter together.
In November 2007 legendary music photographer Annie Leibovitz captured the entire Guthrie clan for a Vanity Fair heroes of folk photo shoot and Arlo looks upon this with a great degree of pride.
“I think it was an incredible portrait of the entire family Annie did because she had to capture like 14 people” he says. “Sarah Lee was pregnant with the newest member of the Guthrie family at the time and I thought it was an amazing thing to capture that.
“Vanity Fair is a big magazine and is seen by millions of people around the world and to have that picture is a great legacy for the family for many generations to come.”
Throughout his recording and performing career Arlo has been happy to play Woody’s songs.
“I grew up listening to my dad’s records, alongside a lot of other people,” he says. “I was always familiar with the songs as I was growing up and in fact I’ve just released a record I did of his songs.
“A lot of people who come to hear me are not just my peers but also are people who were Woody’s peers. You get these guys in their eighties who show up and say that they listened to my dad’s songs during the Depression and it really helped them through. I’m always happy to oblige them.”
Tickets for the Galway show are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago. Tickets for Castlebar are available from The Royal Castlebar at 0818 300 000, www.theroyal.ie, www.ticketmaster.ie, or any ticketmaster outlet nationwide.
