Another generation of folk music's Guthries takes to the road
By TOM KEYSER
The Albany Times Union
Sarah Lee Guthrie
Sarah Lee Guthrie

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Sarah Lee Guthrie says "bring the kids." A lot of people who come to see Arlo, her father, don't think that way. But for this tour, Sarah says, think kids.

"It's really a family show, and it's really fun," she says. "We have ages 2 to 62 on stage. We're certainly encouraging more families to play music. So I hope that people might be inspired to bring their kids."

Sarah, 30, along with her husband, Johnny Irion, their two daughters and other Guthries and friends, recently recorded a children's album, "Go Waggaloo." It was released Oct. 27 by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

"John Smith, from Smithsonian ... called us up and asked if we would consider making a kind of kids' record, a family record, that wouldn't make anybody want to jump out of a minivan," Sarah says. "We totally understood what he meant."

They already had choruses they'd been singing to their daughters, so they wrote the verses — well, sometimes their kids did. For the song "If Mama Had Four Hands," their father asked Olivia, 7, what mama would do if she had four hands.

"And so," Sarah says, "she wrote the verses. 'She would paint with me. She would tie my shoes. She would feed the baby and fold the laundry.' That was kind of the process for a lot of those songs."

Three are songs that Sarah's grandfather Woody Guthrie wrote. Sarah put music to his lyrics. They recorded the album in their new home in Washington, Mass., four miles from Arlo's spread.

"We just built this house made of wood. It's like the inside of a guitar," Sarah says. "And for a kids record, it was even more perfect, because to get kids into a studio, and one, two, three sing, doesn't always work. So we were able to be natural and be in our house, and when it was inspiring, and we wanted to sing, and the kids wanted to sing, we were able to press record."

Three of the songs make it into their concerts, she says. But the shows are a mix of Guthrie talents.

"Well, there's a whole lot of us Guthries," she says, laughing. "Everybody gets a spotlight to do what they do. It's really a collage of us doing our own songs but also paying tribute to our grandfather, who was kind of the reason why we're all here and doing this, and why so many people do this."

ON THE WAY
Sarah Guthrie and the "Guthrie Family Rides Again Tour" are scheduled to perform March 27 at the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College. Tickets are $35-$45 through www. jccc.edu.