Arts & Lectures
2005-2006 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

September 27, 2005

Enduring folk artist Arlo Guthrie brings his 40th Anniversary Celebration of Alice’s Restaurant to UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

Music fans can get anything they want at the 40th Anniversary Celebration of Arlo Guthrie’s epic ballad “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” on Tuesday, November 1 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Folksinger and countercultural hero Arlo Guthrie inspired a whole generation to social consciousness and activism with “Alice’s Restaurant,” a protest song that became an underground hit (it didn’t dent radio charts as it was 18-and-a-half minutes long) and later a film directed by Arthur Penn. Although he stopped playing the song live years ago, he has decided to play “Alice” again, along with other favorites (like “City of New Orleans,” “The Motorcycle Song” and “Coming into Los Angeles”), accompanied by his son Abe on keyboards and Gordon Titcomb on steel, mandolin and banjo. Opening the show and at times accompanying Arlo will be The Mammals, featuring Pete Seeger’s son Tao, playing their trademark infectious mix of social commentary and fiddle-banjo-guitar artistry. The Boston Globe claims that live Guthrie “sweeps together all the wisdom of his years.”

Arlo Guthrie was born with a guitar in one hand and a harmonica in the other, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York in 1947. He is the eldest son of America’s most beloved singer/writer/philosopher Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, a professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of The Committee to Combat Huntington’s Disease. He grew up surrounded by dancers and musicians: Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman and Lee Hays (The Weavers), Leadbelly, Cisco Houston, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, all of whom were significant influences on Arlo’s musical career. Guthrie gave his first public performance at age 13 and quickly became involved in the music that was shaping the world during the 1960s.

Arlo practically lived in the most famous venues of the “Folk Boom” era. He witnessed the transition from an earlier generation of ballad singers like Richard Dyer-Bennet and blues-men like Mississippi John Hurt to a new era of singer-song writers such as Bob Dylan, Jim Croce, Joan Baez and Phil Ochs. He grooved with the beat poets Allen Ginsburg and Lord Buckley, and picked with players Bill Monroe and Doc Watson. He learned something from everyone and developed his own style, becoming a distinctive, expressive voice in a crowded community of singer-songwriters and political-social commentators.

Arlo Guthrie’s career exploded in 1967 with the release of Alice’s Restaurant, whose title song premiered at the Newport Folk Festival. He went on to star in the 1969 Hollywood film version of Alice’s Restaurant that film critic Roger Ebert calls “warm and alive.” Ebert singles out Arlo’s performance, claiming he “is quiet and open and good on camera.”

Over the last four decades Guthrie has toured throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia winning a wide, popular following. In addition to his accomplishments as a musician, playing the piano, six and twelve-string guitar, harmonica and a dozen other instruments, Arlo is a natural-born storyteller, whose tales and anecdotes figure prominently in his performances. Today Arlo spends nearly ten months of the year on the road, and is frequently accompanied by his son Abe, who has shared the stage with his father for over 15 years, playing keyboards and providing additional vocals.

Alongside his thriving performing career, Guthrie launched his own record label Rising Son Records in 1983. In addition to Arlo’s complete catalogue of music, RSR includes recordings by Abe’s band Xavier, daughter Sarah Lee’s debut album Sarah Lee Guthrie, and Johnny Irion’s recording Unity Lodge.

The public is invited to a free Meet-the-Artist Discussion with Arlo Guthrie on Tuesday, November 1 at 12 noon at the Old Little Theater, College of Creative Studies. Guthrie will participate in a discussion with singer-songwriter Glenn Phillips, former leader of Toad the Wet Sprocket, who has just released the CD Winter Pays for Summer. Moderator Dick Flacks is a UCSB Professor of Sociology and host of The Culture of Protest on KCSB-FM.

Concert-goers may enhance their experience by attending a “Thanksgiving Dinner that can’t be beat!” buffet served by the UCSB Faculty Club at 6 pm prior to the show. The dinner is $18 per person; reservations must be made by October 25 by calling (805) 893-3096.

Arlo Guthrie is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by KCBX Public Radio, Best Western Peppertree Inn and Buttonwood Wines. Arts & Lectures’ Roots Series, of which this concert is a part, is sponsored by Fredric E. Steck and Kelly LeBrock. Tickets are $45 for the general public and $19 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.

©2005 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara