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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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ARLO GUTHRIE Dingwalls (formerly known as
Lock 17,
formerly known as Dingwalls), London, August
8th 2006 |
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There
are three things you should know about Arlo
Guthrie. Firstly he was the other-worldly
(ie. mostly on another planet at the time), pretty-looking
young boy who sang ‘Coming into Los Angeles’
at the Woodstock Festival. Secondly he’s one
of the few artistes I can think of to have a film
made of one of his songs (‘Alice’s Restaurant’).
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| Thirdly,
he’s the guy who proved you could rhyme ‘pickle’
with ‘motorcycle’, something which he
confessed tonight that in retrospect, he regretted
(“but sometimes you can’t choose the
songs you write” he complained, “they
choose you. I mean, why couldn’t that one
have gone to Bob Dylan?”). Oh yes, and fourthly,
of course, he’s the son of the revered (and
much in vogue) hobo folk legend Woody
Guthrie, and along with his sister is at the
hub of a veritable (albeit respectful and well-meaning)
Guthrie family empire. It extends into performance
(the Guthrie
Family Legacy tour, featuring Arlo, son Abe,
daughters Sarah and Cathy), archives and recordings
(managed mostly by sister Nora who’s been
releasing ‘new’ Woody Guthrie lyrics
from a massive archive to singers ‘round the
world – including our favourite Comrade Billy
Bragg) and a huge amount of charitable work. Did
you know, for example, that the church that was
at the heart of the story of Alice’s Restaurant
was bought by Arlo, it’s now the Guthrie Center
(sic), home of the Guthrie Foundation which amongst
many other things raises funds for research into
Huntingdon’s Disease, which killed his father
(and quite possibly his grandmother)? |
| There’s
a lot of Woody stuff in the course of the evening,
but it’s nicely done, not overdone, and sits
easily with the rather self-depreciating and matter-of-fact
character that Guthrie (Arlo that is) casts over
this quite intimate evening at Dingwalls (yes –
it’s got its name back!) where the largely
middle-aged, ex-hippy-turned-retired estate agent
audience spend much of the evening squabbling over
seats. The structure of the set is much the same
as a solo show I saw in Dublin some years ago, held
together by Guthrie’s apparently rambling
narratives, with as many twists, turns, and byways
as a ‘Green green rocky road’ which
he sings about. |
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| The
recurring theme of the evening is song writing -
“it’s just like fishing, you have to
sit down and wait for one to come along –
but just make sure you’re not downstream of
Bob Dylan”. The first half ends with an increasingly
animated story about hash and paranoia that leads
inevitably into ‘Los Angeles’, and after
an instrumental warm up (Guthrie is a much better
musician that he gives himself credit for) the second
gets under way with those familiar chords that used
to be badly played at so many early seventies parties
(“Sounds like you might have heard this before
– I know I have”) that herald a word-perfect
‘Alice’s Restaurant’ (“one
of the things I’ve learned about song writing
over the years is to keep the new songs short …”) |
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There
are plenty of funny stories about “my daddy”.
We hear a clip from some recently discovered tapes
of him yarning – soon to be released on a
CD as ‘Woody wires’ – and the
similarities to his son’s meanderings are
remarkable. There are tales about Bob Dylan and
a host of other sixties folksy folks, some despairing
observations on the state of things today (“Well
either my daddy’s songs have aged exceptionally
well or the world still sucks…”) and
politics (“I never ever imagined that Nixon
could ever start to look good …”). If
you haven’t guessed there are lots of jokes
too, and lots of laughter. |
| And
there are a few nicely played tunes (Gordon Titcomb
is excellent on pedal steel guitar and mandolin),
‘St James’ Infirmary’, ‘In
times like these’, Steve Goodman’s ‘Good
morning America’ and ‘In my darkest
hour’. But then at the end it all got a bit
like Billy Bragg meets the Woodcraft Folk round
the campfire as the audience sang and rocked their
heads like nodding dogs to “daddy’s”
‘This land is your land’ and ‘My
peace’. Hmmmm. |
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Never mind. Arlo is a thoroughly charming fellow,
and whilst the sticky and cloying scent of nostalgia
might be hanging heavily in the air, he remains
an endearing reminder of the naive but caring optimism
that thought it could change the world but didn’t,
but which certainly changed rock and roll for ever,
and which did (and in Guthrie’s case still
does) make a difference. - Nick Morgan (concert
photographs by Kate) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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