Arlo

I doubt anyone walks away from an Arlo Guthrie concert disappointed. He’s too entertaining a storyteller, and many of his punch lines are masterfully timed.

And then there’s the music. Tonight, I saw him at the Boulder theater and in addition to his own stuff (to borrow a favorite Guthrie word), he ranged from Leadbelly to Steve Goodman to Woody Guthrie, of course. All stirring renditions.

Some great quips:

About half way through the concert, he looks out at the Boulder crowd and says, “There’s a lot of weird people here. And they’re all disguised as normal.”

Referencing the cumulative toll of a 40-year career and lifestyle (with a hilarious anecdote about his gig at Woodstock, when he was 19), “People pay a lot money now to feel the way I do for free.”

There was a wistfulness that bubbled to the surface of many of his monologues. Implicit was this acknowledgment that the world is as messed up today as as it was 40 years ago. Fittingly, he ended on a note about the importance of seemingly small gestures and actions. The “pieces” of you that you give to others. [UPDATE: I mangled this. The song is called, “My peace.”]

He wrote the song based on an unpublished piece of his father’s work.