Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA

Subject: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Feb 20 - 08:04 PM

This decommissioned church, which has now become a community center,
hosts a number of music events.
There is something called a Hootenanny,
and during the warmer months of the year
there is a Troubadour Series.

I have no experience of these;
any Mudcats ever been to
or performed at one of these events?

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Feb 20 - 11:51 PM

This is the church that figured in the "Alice's Restaurant" song. I bought a "Garbage Trail" T-shirt there, a perfect memento. It's out in the middle of nowhere, but it's an interesting place to visit in a very beautiful area. Didn't get the chance to hear any music there, though.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 08:45 AM

I gather this place is a homage to Woody?- not clear from the above

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 09:23 AM

We managed to find the place whilst we were staying at the Red Lion in Stockbridge a couple of years ago but it looked closed and deserted. The Red Lion hotel is about 50 yards from the original Alices Restaurant; which was also closed and had changed its name.

“Now the first of December was covered with snow
So was the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston”

James Taylor (“Sweet Baby James” - if you’re still trying to place it) also has connections with Stockbridge.

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 09:28 AM

Here's a link to their website:

https://guthriecenter.org/programs/

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 11:21 AM

There is more than one not-for-profit organization which calls itself
"Guthrie Foundation," just to confuse matters;
only one "Guthrie Center," as far as I know.

Nora Guthrie (Arlo's sister?) administers the Woody Guthrie Foundation, aided by a younger woman who is, I presume, Nora's daughter. This is the earlier of the two foundations, coming as it does directly from the time that Woody Guthrie was dealing with Huntington's Disease and getting his affairs in order at the end of his life. The Woody Guthrie Foundation has its headquarters in New York State (Mount Kisco?).

Now, the Guthrie Center is related to, although separate from in some respects, a "Guthrie Foundation" that dates back to the 1990's and was established in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Harrah's Cherokee Center in Asheville, North Carolina, was on an Arlo Guthrie tour recently, and their webpages included this public-relations notice of which I do not know the origin.

"Named for his parents, the Guthrie Center is a not-for-profit interfaith church foundation dedicated to providing a wide range of local and international services.
Its outreach programs include everything from providing HIV/AIDS services to baking cookies with a local service organization; an HD walk-a-thon to raise awareness and money for a cure for Huntington's Disease; and offering a place to simply meditate.
The [arlo] Guthrie Foundation is a separate not-for-profit educational organization that addresses issues such as the environment, health care, cultural preservation and educational exchange."

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 02:06 PM

If you contact the Guthrie Center, you're quite likely to get a response from Arlo himself. He's quite the hands-on person, and he's been very helpful when I've asked for information about songs.

He loves storytelling, and he does it very well.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 03:27 PM

Here is a report from a local newspaper,
promoting the Hootenanny at the Guthrie Center
in Housatonic, Massachusetts.

Thursday nights at the Guthrie Center are a hoot (Berkshire Eagle)

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Feb 20 - 07:37 PM

Alice Brock, owner of Alice's Restaurant, has a Wikipedia Page and a Web Page (https://alicebrock.com/).

There's also a Web page where Alice gives readers a tour of Provincetown, the lovely village at the tip of Cape Cod where she now lives:

http://archive.boston.com/travel/explorene/massachusetts/regions/capecod/galleries/alice_brock_shows_us_provincetown/

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 03:45 PM

About the Hootenanny:
the whole point, it seems, is that
nobody is booked ahead of time.
So unless you know people who know locals or something,
you show up with no idea of who will be there
or what music is going to be played.

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 09:37 PM

Not far away from "Alice's Restaurant" you can find the grave of James Francis Child in the Stockbridge cemetery. Bat Goddess gave me directions to the grave a year or so ago when I went to the Berkshires, but it snowed on the day I wanted to see it do I didn't go.

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Mar 20 - 10:05 PM

I dunno, ChanteyLass. Sounds like a James Taylor song.


When my sister lived in Duxbury south of Boston and my other sister lived in Newtown in Connecticut, I'd visit every year and do repairs on their homes in exchange for meals and lodging and laundry, and I had a chance to travel to all sorts of wonderful places. I made several trips into the Berkshires, and saw all sorts of wonderful things there. It's a wonderful place to visit - but don't miss the Guthrie Center. There's also Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony, the Norman Rockwell museum in Stockbridge, and all sorts of other wonderful things.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 04 Mar 20 - 06:40 PM

Yes, indeed. Up north in the Berkshires is my favorite, Clark Art, and a friend's favorite, Mass MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Arts). I also like The Mount which was built for Edith Wharton to her specifications and Chesterwood, the home and studio of the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial's statue of Lincoln.

Subject: RE: Guthrie Center, Housatonic, MA
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 12 Jul 22 - 06:19 PM

It's tourist season in force here in Berkshire County.
Many sorts of things are resuming for the first time since the pandemic lockdown in 2020 which shut down tourism in Berkshire County, as elsewhere, for the better part of two years.

I drove through Stockbridge today.
I drove along side the long portion, facing west,
of the Red Lion Inn.
It was startling to see heavily-plastic/vinyl-wrapped
NEW MATTRESSES where they had just been delivered,
leaning up outside against the hotel wall:
twins, double/fulls, queens, I don't know what all,
almost a dozen of them.

I hope that they got the mattresses safely inside the Red Lion Inn
before that storm which just blew through here in late afternoon;
it pulled trees down, and knocked out the power in Lenox to the north.