Preview: Arlo Guthrie: The Alice's Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour

MUSIC

Arlo Guthrie brings his red VW Microbus to town this Monday at the Michigan Theater

Arlo Guthrie brings his red VW Microbus to town this Monday at the Michigan Theater

The son of pioneering folk icon Woody Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie grew up with a unique perspective on a genre he would later adopt as his own. Surrounded by folk and “beat” greats, he was forged in a smelter of arts and artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Bill Monroe, and Doc Watson.

And then came Alice’s Restaurant. This presumably true – albeit festooned with literary license – story of a garbage dump run gone horribly wrong, pushed Arlo Guthrie to the front of the folk and rock stages in an era of general angst and wrenching generational change. The musical and spoken story, released in 1967 about the fateful day in 1965, along with the “the twenty-seven 8-by-10 colored glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one”, became a cult classic, earning him a spot at Woodstock and a place in the hearts of counter-culture music lovers around the world.

50 years later, Arlo Guthrie will re-tell his story – perhaps with a few new verses thrown in – this Monday night at The Michigan Theater, at the latest stop of The Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour. Those of us desiring to re-live our hazy youths will want to see this brilliant and funny performer once again, and those of us who just want a great evening of songs and storytelling will want to see Arlo for his enduring humor and musicality.


Don Alles is a marketing consultant, house concert host, and musical wannabee living in and loving his recently adopted home, Ann Arbor.


Arlo Guthrie brings Alice's Restaurant to the Michigan Theater on Monday, November 9, at 7:30 pm . Tickets are available through Ticketmaster online or by phone at 800-845-3000.