The Guthries...Questions and Comments

Subject: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: mzkitty
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:20 PM

I'll be spending a some time with Arlo, his kids Sarah Lee, Abe and Sarah Lee's husband Johnny, April 5th, 6th and 7th. I thought that if any of you have a question you'd like to ask them, or a comment, you could post it here and I will print it out and relay it to them. I think that would mean a lot to them and it's very possible they might respond.

**Incidentally, Sarah Lee (Arlo's youngest daughter) and her husband are expecting their first child in August. (due date the 8th)

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:29 PM

Can you find out if Arlo's really a 'catter?

*GRIN*

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:33 PM

Wow - li'l Arlo a grandpa! Time does fly, doesn't it.

You could ask him if he remembers an outdoor gig on ski slopes in New England in the early 80's, when he started to play Don't Think Twice, and a fan went nuts after about 2 chords? That was me.

I am assuming he did not inherit his father's condition, right? We know this now?

Otherwise just give him an extra kiss for me. Then I can say I'm one degree of separation from kissing Arlo!

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Fortunato
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:34 PM

Well, tell them I sent my greetings, and thanks for much fine music over the years. I hear Sarah and Johnny have been been hanging out a bit with my cousin Kyle Shiver. Congratulations on the coming event. Tell them all if they come down to DC they're always welcome to stay with Susette and I. Cheers, Chance Shiver

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 01:54 PM

Actually Arlo is already a Grandpa!

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Dead Horse
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 02:12 PM

Tell Arlo I used to drive my army unit (British) mad playing Alices Restaurant over and over again in Germany, and to thank him & his late father for sharing their music with several generations of folkies the world over.

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Steve-o
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 06:58 PM

As an Army draftee who went to war, then to Army Hospital in Japan for the remainder of my servitude, my all-time favorite song of the era was "Alice's Restaurant". I learned to play it well, but never quite put all the words in the memory banks- always had to use a cheat sheet. A buddy from back in those days (we worked in the hospital together for about a year) sent me an e-mail last November that said, "We always celebrate Thanksgiving with Arlo's Alices' Restaurant on the 'record player'. My wife and I were in Albuquerque once with our daughter Heather when Arlo walked into the restaurant - we told him, and he liked our tradition." What a cool family tradition- with I'd thought of it.

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: mzkitty
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 07:50 PM

Yes, Arlo is already a Grandpa...there is a whole new batch of the next generation running around. Sarah is Arlo and Jackie's youngest and still seems like a little girl herself, shy and giggly...but when she sings....oh my...she's an angel.

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 10:02 PM

Hey, K.W., just in case you don't catch my questions over at Tweeds...ahhh... Well, my cousin Rufus is real concerned about the war and all... and even though the boy is going to be 49 in December he's real afraid he's goinna get drafted so ask Arlo if he has a Plan B, just in case the folks at the draft office saw the movie...

Now, as fir myself, ask Arlo how long he had to wear the bag over his head after you kicked his butt at the Carnagie Battle-of-the-Folk-Singers contest last November. That is, if he's taken it off yet...

Love ya, girl... Glad to have ya' back.

Bobert

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: michaelr
Date: 20 Mar 02 - 10:09 PM

You could tell Arlo I miss that silly Hawaiian TV show he was on...

Michael

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: mzkitty
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 08:35 AM

I miss that show too... "Byrds of Paradise". It was one of the few times I didn't mind a TV being on in a club while I was playing!

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Art Thieme
Date: 21 Mar 02 - 09:10 PM

Please ask Mr. Guthrie why he changed the tune to the line in Stevie Goodman's song "City If New Orleans" containing the words "gone 500 miles when day is done"?

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: alanabit
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 05:44 AM

There was a query earlier here about whether Arlo inherited his father's illness. Arlo is not at risk.It is Woody Guthrie's daughters who are. Huntingdon's Chorea is passed down across the gender lines. The son can inherit from the mother and the daughter can inherit from the father. From what I know (and there are plenty more knwledgeable Catters than me on this subject) the disease was first really recognised only a short time before Guthrie senior was diagnosed. I believe that the outlook for today's sufferers is more hopeful, as drugs can be used to control the condition. Good luck and good health to all the Guthries.

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 09:34 AM

Correcting some misinformation in the previous post:

Huntington's disease is genetic, but is NOT sex-linked. It is caused by a single dominant gene. If either parent has it, all children have a 50/50 chance of inheriting it. If a child escapes the disease, he will not pass it on to his or her offspring. Until recent advances in genetic testing, the only way to know if you had it was to wait for the onset of symptoms in mid-life, after the age when you'd started the next generation of the family. With genetic tests, it can now be diagnosed before one starts a family, but there is still no cure.

More information at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 10:14 AM

I'd like to know if any serious biographers has ever approached the family to write a family history? Or put one on film?

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: DaveJ
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 01:02 PM

My wife gave me a copy of Woody Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein for this last Christmas. I didn't jump right into it right away. I had read Woody's Bound For Glory many years ago and sort of held Woody in awe and didn't want the glow to fade. However, once I started reading ...A Life, I was hooked. Klein's treatment of Woody's life is very truthful yet sympathetic in my opinion. Klein gives the reader a very detailed account of Woody's life including more information than I had thought possible regarding his family history, his three wives, and his children. The book also containes a good deal of information about Huntington's Disease. (Read Charlie Baum's post above. He is correct.) I also enjoyed learning about Woody's relationship with the American Left and the Communist Party during his life. I would definitely recommend this book as a 'must have' on any Mudcatter's shelf. It put a human face on someone that I feel is an American Icon.

DaveJ

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: alanabit
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 02:08 PM

Thanks Charlie. I should have known that someone better informed would come along... What I knew was based on the biography (may have been Klein's) and the background reading I did on the subject twenty years ago. I know that Guthrie's mother is believed to have had the condition and that it had passed to at least one of his daughters. Let's hope no one else gets it.

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: Bennet Zurofsky
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 03:49 PM

I don't know what context you will be meeting with Arlo in, but if it is a journalistic effort, I would be very interested in hearing him talk about his and his music's relationship to his father's music and literature. In listening to Arlo sing, I have always been struck by the fact that he seems, musically, to be more a son a Bob Dylan than a son of Woody Guthrie. Dylan, of course, has long been labeled as one of Woody's children, and the influence is strong and obvious throughout Dylan's career, but especially in his earliest work. Arlo, however, strikes me as someone who was initially inspired by Dylan and the related scene and who only really discovered his father's music later. From an artistic point of view, Arlo seems to me to be Dylan's son and Woody's grandson. I wonder what Arlo's own thoughts are on this.

Subject: RE: The Guthries...Questions and Comments
From: mzkitty
Date: 23 Mar 02 - 09:22 AM

I'll be doing a couple of shows with Arlo's daughter, Sarah Lee and her husband Johnny April 5th and 7th. Arlo and son Abe, will connect up with Sarah and Johnny mid-weekend (April 6th) at The Manteo Folk festival here on the North Carolina Outer Banks. I plan on printing these comments/questions and giving them to the family. I'm sure they will answer your questions one way or another.