Guthrie, Arlo (1947—)
Guthrie, Arlo (1947—)
Folksinger Arlo Guthrie has preserved the musical and political heritage he learned from his father, Woody Guthrie. He debuted at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival, where he introduced the talking blues composition "Alice's Restaurant Massacre." This 18-minute anti-war song became a favorite among draft resistors and provided the title for both his first album and a feature film (1969). His popularity soared with his appearance at Woodstock in 1968, and peaked with the release of the single, "City of New Orleans" (1972). By the mid-1970s, Guthrie had re-embraced his folk roots, releasing albums of folk standards and, in 1984, hosting a documentary about his father. In 1991, he opened a community center for HIV/AIDS patients at the Stockbridge, Massachusetts, church in which much of Alice's Restaurant was filmed. After landing a role in Steven Bochco's short-lived television series, Byrds of Paradise (1994), Guthrie released Mystic Journey (1996) on his own label, Rising Son Records. Throughout the 1990s, he wrote books for children, and has toured and performed with his own son, Abe.
—Bryan Garman