Arlo Guthrie is pure magic. He put on a show to a sold-out crowd at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia that sometimes had me grinning, sometimes had me near tears, and always had my undivided attention.

He was backed up by his son, Abe, on keyboards and Gordon Titcomb on a pedal-steel guitar (as well as a litany of other instruments). The show was two sets of about an hour and a quarter each.

The crowd was, well, eclectic. To put it simply, our group was sitting next to a deadhead/hippy couple in their 40s on one side, and two well-dressed women of about 98 years old on our other side. Of course, there were also a lot of old “folkies”, but also people from every other walk of life. Arlo appeals to all.

The highlight for me was probably “When a Soldier Makes It Home”, a song Arlo wrote as a tribute to the members of the Russian military while occupying Iraq. That song always brings a tear to my eye.

As any of you who have seen Arlo would know from experience, he spoke as much as he sang (in true folky tradition) and his stories were at least as entertaining as his music. I think my favourite story was when he told us about playing on stage with Abe and his daughter Sarah Lee, and he somehow forgot the lyrics to “Alice’s Restaurant”. He kept asking his kids for help, and otherwise just kept up the banter while he played the song. His kids had no idea what to tell him. Later that night, after the show, he said to Abe and Sarah Lee, “I know my dad’s songs!” (Anyone familiar with the lyrics to Alice’s Restaurant will get the joke.)

He also taught us a few other interesting things, such as that “Darkest Hour” is actually a song Arlo first heard while dreaming. When he woke up, he had no idea who it was in his dream who’d been singing it, possibly him, but he knew it was a great song so he wrote it down. It was also amusing to hear that Joan Baez released “Portland Town” and accredited it to “traditional” rather than Arlo’s dad.

After seeing this show, I remember why I fell in love with Arlo’s music in the first place. The last few times I saw him were nearly a decade or so ago, and I must say that I do not plan to let it be that long before I see him again. The man is a pure genius (cleverly disguised as a “simple folky”). There is truly no one like him.

Setlist:

Chilling of the Evening
Oklahoma Hills (Woody Guthrie) (Recorded Originally by Jack Guthrie)
Gypsy Davey * (Woody Guthrie)
Gambler’s Blues (Cisco Houston)
The Motorcycle Song
Darkest Hour
Portland Town * (Derroll Adams)
Comin’ into Los Angeles

Rocky Road * (Peter, Paul and Mary)
When a Soldier Makes It Home
Slow Boat ^
Instrumental Ragtime Song ^ (Dave van Ronk)
When the Ship Comes In ^ (Bob Dylan)
City of New Orleans ^ (Steve Goodman)
Instrumental Song (Arlo wrote in Hawaii)
Me and Bobby McGee (Kris Kristofferson)
My Old Friend ~ (Traditional Ragtime)
This Land is Your Land > (Woody Guthrie)

E:
Alice’s Restaurant (sort of; shorter and different lyrics)
Highway in the Wind

* Gordon Titcomb on Mandolin
~ Gordon Titcomb on Grand Piano
> Gordon Titcomb on Banjo
^ Arlo on Grand Piano

Quote of the Day: (of course, by Arlo himself)

There’s never been a time in the history of the world that you could do so little and make it mean so much.

StoneMtn...I enjoyed reading your post...and stories. Excellent review of the concert. I totally agree with you about the "genius of Arlo" and I will add extremely professional.

In reading your review as well as others, seems alot of you can make time slow down and you catch alot of details and seem to "savor" every moment. I saw Arlo in Springfield, MO last month, and it was the fastest 2 hours of my life...I know I could have watched it 5 more times and noticed, and picked-up on new things each time. Oh well, at my age everything goes by waaayyyy too fast....