THIS FRIDAY, EVERYTHING'S coming up Guthrie as the "Guthrie Family Rides Again" onto the Birchmere's stage. Paterfamilias Arlo Guthrie is not only building bridges between the generations; he's forging bonds between his father Woody's (reverent pause) unpublished lyrics and music written by the likes of Wilco, Billy Bragg and the Klezmatics. "Guthrie Family Rides Again" features three generations of Guthries including Arlo's son, Abe; his daughters Cathy, Annie and Sarah Lee; and their kin. Sarah Lee, who recently released a children's folk album called "Go Waggaloo," spoke with Express about the concert.

È EXPRESS: So how many Guthries are going to be onstage at one time?
È GUTHRIE: It's the whole family, 13 of us, plus an honorary family member who's been drumming for my dad since 1975. I mean, there's my brother, two sisters and a lot of kids. We've got an auto harp, a ukulele a 12-year-old on clarinet. It's just the whole bunch of us singing a lot of songs that have recently come out of the archives, thanks to my aunt.

È EXPRESS: There are far too many proficient musicians in your family. This hardly seems fair.
È GUTHRIE: You don't need lessons for folk music! You just play it. When I was a kid, my dad was on the road, and the music I was exposed to was my brother's rock band. And people would get together to play nightly in my house at all times. When I started having kids myself, the same thing happened. My 7-year-old, Olivia, goes on the road with us the whole time. Once, she showed up at a gig because the baby sitter couldn't make it. So we gave her a harmonica.

È EXPRESS: Each generation is carrying the torch lit by Woody, it seems. Is that daunting?
È GUTHRIE: It's an honor to be furthering his legacy. I'm encouraged by it. We've built a pretty good foundation here; we keep building up the house. We realize it's kind of a neat thing that Arlo had a career, made music and had a beautiful time on the road for 40-plus years. And we each developed in our own way. We'll be here when he goes.

È EXPRESS: So it really is something of a family reunion.
È GUTHRIE: This may not happen again. That contributes to the vibe. But the idea of joining the generations and using folk as a means of doing so, that contributed to this show, even my record.

È EXPRESS: How did "Go Waggaloo" come about?
È GUTHRIE: Smithsonian Folkways asked if there could be a kid's folk album that wouldn't make you want to jump out of your minivan. So that was something we wanted to avoid, you know. I mean, I didn't realize this world existed until I made this record.

È Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria; Fri., 7:30 p.m., $55; 703-549-7500.