Arlo Guthrie’s Vietnam-era music as relevant as ever

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It has been 12 years since folk luminary Arlo Guthrie released a studio album of original material.

Much has changed since that 1996 release, “Mystic Journey,” with the U.S. involved in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The comparison could be made to when Guthrie, 61, was first coming up on the folk scene in the 1960s, with the U.S. involved in a lengthy war in Vietnam.

So, in many ways, it would seem to be an appropriate time for a new Guthrie record. He has been working on new material between tours since July, and many of the songs look back to the time when Guthrie was growing up in the midst of the social and political movements of the ’60s.

“The songs are generally about looking for the magic that was once part of the culture, and trying to get back to some of that,” Guthrie said during a recent phone interview from his home in Washington, Mass.

“The time when I was growing up was so exciting in some ways, but also horrific in other ways. . . . I think that was a wonderful time to grow up, with people questioning authority and asking about the way things work, and when they didn’t get the right answers, trying to make something different. All these things that I think we’ve lost a little of, we need to restore it, and I just do that in my own little way.”

‘Lost World’

When he spoke with The Gazette, Guthrie was about to head out to Wisconsin to continue his “Lost World” tour, which began in February this year and will stop at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall on Wednesday. The tour takes its name from the unfinished new album, which Guthrie hopes to finish recording after the tour and release sometime next year.

“I think what we’re gonna end up doing is tightening up the songs on the road, which is preferable anyway,” Guthrie said. “Most of the time, you record the songs on record, then play them for people and change them on the road.”

The son of Woody Guthrie and Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, who was a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Guthrie has many ties to the folk scene in the Capital Region, having regularly performed at Caffe Lena and other venues here throughout his long career. He considers his coming performance at the Music Hall a local gig.

“It’s fun for us, we get to go home after the gig,” Guthrie said.

Despite the long wait between studio albums, Guthrie has been keeping busy with tours and live releases, including last year’s “In Times Like These,” a recording of Guthrie performing with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Guthrie also embarked on a “solo reunion” tour last year, performing dates across the country without a band for the first time since his earliest shows.

For the “Lost World” tour, Guthrie is being joined by a full band, including his son Abe Guthrie and the Burns Sisters — Annie, Marie and Jeannie — from Ithaca. Guthrie’s longtime friend Terry Alaberry has joined the band on drums.

“It’s sort of like a combination of getting the old band back together with some new people,” Guthrie said. “This comes after the solo tour last year all year. So this is really different for me, but I’m having a great time so far.”

Backlog of material

His current supporting band is also the group he’s recording “Lost World” with. Guthrie has been continuously writing songs since “Mystic Journey” but has only just been able to find time to record them.

“They’ve been sitting in the back of my brain, or in these days on the hard drive, and some of them are a few years old; some are even older than that,” Guthrie said. “One of the problems is that I’m building my own studio that I finally just got done, and I had a tour in August. [The album] was half done, but it didn’t sound right. So I thought, ‘Oh, let’s just wait a few weeks.’ We got on the road, and one thing after another, it just got held up.”

Of course, Guthrie’s back catalog is massive, known for songs such as “Coming Into Los Angeles” and “City of New Orleans.” Guthrie’s performance at the Music Hall also comes a week before Thanksgiving, no small coincidence considering one of Guthrie’s most well known songs, the 18-plus minute talking folk song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” has become something of a Thanksgiving tradition in the U.S.

Signature song

The song, an anti-draft story released during the height of the Vietnam War, details the true story of Thanksgiving 1965 at Alice Brock’s restaurant in an old church in Great Barrington, Mass., which is now The Guthrie Center. According to Guthrie, the song’s message is especially important in today’s political climate, with the possible threat of a draft looming, given the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Every year, there’s that connection to ‘Alice’ that no one intended; it’s just become part of the culture in some ways and some places,” Guthrie said. “This year, it seems like it’s particularly current. The military is stretched beyond its capability, and you can either reorganize the global situation so we don’t have so many guys so far from home, or you get more guys.”

In fact, according to Guthrie, the wars and other social and political concerns have helped to create somewhat of a resurgence for Guthrie’s music. In particular, new generations are starting to discover Guthrie’s blend of protest music and tongue-in-cheek humor.

“In the last year and a half, I’ve seen more and more young people come to our shows,” Guthrie said. “It’s not because we have anything on the radio. We’re not in teen magazines. We’re not on TV. There’s no new movies. Even our records don’t go through major labels. There’s nothing to account for all of the young people showing up, except the thing that’s a connection to them from 40 years ago, which is that the world is getting crazy.”

But one of the most important things for Guthrie is creating a sense of unity at his shows in the face of adversity around the world.

“We sort of realize we’re all in the same boat,” Guthrie said. “It’s a different feeling from if you think you’re in a boat all by yourself. That’s something we always have; it’s part of what we do, and sometimes it’s more important.”

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