Rating: NNN
In the summer of 69, folk music’s second most famous Guthrie played a historic show on a farm in upstate New York. This live album isn’t from that particular concert but recorded at an undisclosed Long Island venue just prior to it.
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Most Arlo Guthrie fans don’t need another version of seminal smuggler warning Coming Into Los Angeles or Alice’s Restaurant, both included here, but that’s not the selling point. It’s Guthrie’s banter and song extensions, in which he tells the red-eyed tales behind the songs and makes playful cracks about current events.
It’s questionable whether this album will appeal to anyone but baby boomers. Lyndon B. Johnson jokes only go so far.
Top track: If Ever I Should See The Mountain
Arlo Guthrie plays the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts Tuesday (October 27).
