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Arlo Guthrie making stop in Knoxville on Friday, Feb 20th
Legendary folk music icon Arlo Guthrie will be making a stop on this Friday, February 20, 2015 at The Bijou.
As part of an 18-month North American tour celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the event that inspired the seminal song, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" legendary folk music icon Arlo Guthrie will be performing at The Bijou on Friday, February 20th. A musical monologue running more than 18 minutes, "Alice's Restaurant" has become a Thanksgiving holiday anthem to families across the globe and it all originates from Guthrie's experience on Thanksgiving in 1965. Each night on the forthcoming tour, Guthrie will perform his most prominent work in its entirety, as well as selections from every full-length studio album he's released since his debut, Alice's Restaurant (1967). Please see the announced tour dates listed below, and additional shows will be added in the coming months.
Folk songs enduring many decades of change only become classics when storylines remain just as relevant today as they were when originally composed. "Alice's Restaurant" is of this ilk; it's now weaved into the fabric of American society. Fans have embraced "Alice's Restaurant" as part of their annual Thanksgiving tradition, but also view it as one of the more pronounced anti-war rally songs. However listeners interpret the quintessential tune, we can be rest assured that people of all different walks of life come together singing that famous chorus, "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant...".
"The Alice's Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour" brings together an ensemble of fine musicians never to grace the stage together at one time. Arlo's deft band includes Terry Hall (drums), Bobby Sweet (guitar, vocals), Darren Todd (bass), and his son, Abe Guthrie (keyboards). Each show is curated with an awe-inspiring light show created specifically for this tour by 44 Designs, Inc., along with previously unseen images from the Guthrie archives. More than 75,000 photos have recently been digitized, and selections will be projected during the evening.
"I didn't think I was gonna live long enough to have to learn 'Alice's Restaurant' again," Arlo Guthrie says with a smile. "It was a quirky kinda thing to begin with. Nobody writes an 18-minute monologue expecting fame and fortune. The initial success of the song really took me by surprise more than anyone else. The fact that I have contended with it for five decades either by having to learn it again or by not doing it, has been an interesting balancing act. I'm surely looking forward to adding it to the repertoire though for the 50th anniversary tour."
"Alice's Restaurant's" hilarious account of actual events that precluded Arlo Guthrie from military service (1966) became a platinum selling record (1967) and full-length motion picture (1969) at the outset of his lauded career. Interestingly enough, the song's lyrics reference the number 50 several times (i.e. "...there was five police officers, and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last 50 years... I had to pay $50 to pick up the garbage..."), and here we are 50 years later commemorating the lengthiest hit single in music history. Due of its length, Arlo has only added the complete "Alice's Re
staurant Massacree" to his touring menu on the 10-year anniversaries.
Published February 20, 2015 |
