There is something very special about watching a family make music. In some ways, the concert felt more like a jam session in the Guthrie living room. It was relaxed, unpretentious, totally free of pyrotechnics and costume changes. It was (very talented) people making music for other people.
Musically, there's a lot of Woody Guthrie's DNA here. Woody wrote over 3,000 songs and the ones we know are the 200 that he recorded, Sara Lee Guthrie explains as she and her husband open the show. The family has been working in the archives, writing melodies, finishing lyrics, and recording the songs. It is truly a labor of love that is producing a vast new catalog of music that seems as appropriate today as when Woody wrote it. The times may have changed but people haven't and Woody's knack was knowing people.
Arlo sits on a stool in the middle of it all, telling his own stories and recalling his father. "City of New Orleans" is in the mix but as a reminder that there are people down there that still need a lot of help rather than as a celebration of an Arlo hit.
My favorite moment was finding the family --all but Arlo -- in the lobby at intermission and after the show, signing autographs, selling t-shirts and CDs and seeming really interested in talking to you. No superheated egos here, just people who like people. I asked if they have an adoption process. This is a family I'd love to join.
The Guthrie Family seems to say that, despite the mess we are in as a nation, we'll get through this if we all stick together. It's hopeful, uplifiting and a lot of fun!