Oh my goodness, Examiner has a special holiday treat for you. Music legend, Arlo Guthrie has taken some time out of his busy schedule to talk about his annual Carnegie Hall Concert, Thanksgiving, family, and a whole lot more.
Here’s a snippet taken from his bio: “Arlo Guthrie's career exploded in 1967 with the release of "Alice's Restaurant", whose title song premiered at the Newport Folk Festival helped foster a new commitment among the '60s generation to social consciousness and activism. Arlo went on to star in the 1969 Hollywood film version of "Alice's Restaurant", directed by Arthur Penn.”
And now for the interview:
Examiner: Since we’re talking about Thanksgiving, let’s start with talking about how the Carnegie Hall concert became a Guthrie family tradition. What inspired your family to get together and share your music the weekend following the holiday? Was it just something that slowly developed over time, or was there more to it?
Arlo Guthrie: Somewhere back in the mid to late 60's I began performing with Pete Seeger at his annual Thanksgiving concerts at Carnegie Hall. Pete took over the series begun by The Weavers earlier. Pete and I performed the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving for about 30 years. One day Pete says to me "Arlo, I don't know if I can keep doing these shows. I can't play the banjo, and I can't sing as well as I used to." So, I said "Pete. Considering the age of the folks coming to hear us, that won't be a problem." We laughed about that and Pete continued on for a few more years. After a while though, I eventually took over from Pete and began doing the Saturday after Thanksgiving on my own, bringing different friends with me every year. Now days, I've begun bringing my own family because they all turned out to be fairly decent on stage.
Examiner: Sticking with the family theme, I’ve got to just say that traditional music and Guthrie’s go hand-in-hand, like a warm pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving Day. Are there three or four generations of musicians in your family tree now? (I believe I read somewhere that your grandchildren took the stage, singing some of your dad’s ‘new’ lyrics which is incredible.)
Arlo Guthrie: My family is getting bigger all the time, so there's no telling how many may show up, let alone how many generations. But at this moment there's three generations worth of musicians and four generations worth of material.
Examiner: Your own childhood sounds like it was an amazingly creative space to be in. Growing up with people like Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (to name a few) must have been incredible. Did you always know that music was your passion, or something that you wanted to pursue professionally? And how did being surrounded by those people help to shape your own creativity?
Arlo Guthrie: I never believed I would end up playing music for a living. I was brought up when normal people went to work having a real job, and played music with friends on weekends. But, now there's not enough real work to go around, so I'm happy to be giving up that job to someone else. I always thought I wanted to be a forest ranger. I even went to school for that. But, it didn't work out for me.
Examiner: Here’s just a random question on inspiration I like to ask for fun. Who’s your favorite inspirational song/artist/book (or author)?
Arlo Guthrie: Oh I have lots a favorites. I love the stories of Milarepa, and the tales in Tolkien's books. There's songs and stories to last a lifetime. I keep reading those kinds of things again and again about once every decade.
Examiner: What’s the best piece of advice you can offer other creative types following their dreams? And what’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given at any point in your career (and who offered it to you)?
Arlo Guthrie: I don't know about the best advice, but the worst advice I ever got was from my mother. She said "Arlo, if you want to be an entertainer you should at least have a plan B. Know how to do something besides music." If I'd followed that advice I'm sure I'd have ended up doing something else. Sometimes you have to burn all your bridges so you can't do anything other than what you decide to do. If there's an alternative, you'll end up taking it when things go bad. I decided to become me without regard to success or failure: It is better to fail at being yourself than to succeed at being somebody else.
On behalf of Examiner.com, I’d like to offer a huge heartfelt thank you to Arlo for taking the time to answer these questions.
Here’s the rundown:
Enjoy your Thanksgiving Day, carve a turkey pass the cranberry sauce around the table, then rest up for Carnegie Hall on Saturday November 26th!
The show starts at 8:00pm and tickets are available by stopping by the Carnegie Hall box office located at 57th and 7th or simply click here to purchase your tickets now. The ticket prices range from $12.50-70 so whatever your budget is, you can take part in this amazing family tradition.
For more information on Arlo Guthrie:
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