Arlo, Sarah Lee and Abe, as well as Xavier, gave the city of Boulder an excellent concert, performing many of our favorites and having a lot of fun. Among others, they played such standards (this is by no means complete, but I believe this is most likely similar to other shows this year) as:
- Coming Into Los Angeles
- Sinking of the Reuben James
- Motorcycle Song
- Me And My Goose
- Alice's Restaurant
- When A Soldier Makes It Home
- Ring Around The Rosey Rag
- In My Darkest Hour
- City Of New Orleans
- This Land Is Your Land
Encores:
- Doors Of Heaven
- Goodnight Irene

My friend Jeff, a close friend of mine (who enjoys the music of Robert Earl Keen) bought the tickets for this show as a birthday gift for me. He met me for dinner Friday night, and we headed soonafter to the Boulder Theater. We got there about 10 minutes before showtime, and found ourselves sitting in the balcony. If only Jeff could have gotten the day off like I did, we could have been a lot closer.

Highlights from the show included Arlo reciting "Mooses Come Walking," followed by "Me And My Goose." Sarah Lee was kind enough to point out to Arlo several of the many children in the audience for this show.

Sarah Lee performed a song for these kids as well - "Big Square Walking" - something that Arlo later said was something he had a whole different idea what it was about (the song is about children and sidewalks).

Sarah Lee also performed a Hoyt Axton song, and Xavier performed one of their own songs as well.

After the show, fifty or so of us stayed behind to meet Arlo at the stage, and patient as Arlo can be, signed everything and anything the fans brought before him. I saw at least two copies of Mooses Come Walking get signed, as well as many CD inserts. The gentleman in front of me had Arlo sign four of his CD jackets, including Son Of The Wind, to which I remarked that it is such a great album to have recorded to pass down to future generations. Arlo then signed my ticket. Before I left, I mentioned that all of us Blunderites said to say hello, and he sends his best to all of you. You are not forgotten!

Thanks to all of you, enjoy Arlo at a show near you!

Z-man

thanks for the review, z-man! i'm glad you were finally able to get to a show...nice birthday gift!

Terrific job, Z-Man! Thanks for the full report!!! Boy, we miss you...

Thanks for the info! We need to know what ARlo wore & can someone send some 27 8 by 10 color glossy photographs to Dave to put up so we can see how he looked that nite?

I read a review of one of his shows from Colorado in the Folk music newsgroup. It was a nice one. They forgot to write the fashion report for Arlo tho.

Here's the review I posted on rec.music.folk, and originally rec.music.dylan (come on over sometime!) that Cheryl was talking about:

=================================

Hi everyone, I just got back from possibly the most fun concert I have ever
been to (sorry, Bob). Tonight Arlo Guthrie came to the Boulder Theater
(seats 1500?) in Boulder, Colorado. I walked downtown a little over 2 hours
before the show was scheduled to begin, and was the 4th party in line. The
attendees were mostly old folkies and hippies, from my impression of them.
Lots of grey beards and the like, but there were a few families with little
kids, as well as some younger people like myself, and a few guys who looke
old enough to have known Woody. In general, though, the mix wasn't as
diverse as a typical Bob show. Well, an hour before the show was set to
begin, they opened the doors. Due to part of the front row being reserved, I
ended up in the very center of the second row. I then had an hour to look at
the wonderfully-restored art-deco decor, anxiously awaiting the show.
Finally, Arlo came out, with his daughter Sara Lee, son Abe, and the
three other member's of Abe's band Xavier. Arlo played 6 & 12-string
acoustic guitar, harmonica, and keyboard, Sara Lee six-string guitar, Abe
keyboard, one guy on electric guitar, one on drums, and one on bongos and
bass. It was a larger musical arrangement than I had expected, and it really
came in strong on the "rockers."
The setlist was as follows, as best I could do, being only a casual fan,
a few titles are guesses:

"Chilling of the Evening"
"St. James Infirmary"
"Coming Into Los Angeles"
"The Sinking of the Reuben James"
"Big Square Walking" (Sarah Lee)
"The Motorcycle Song"
"Mooses Come Walking" (poem)
"Me and My Goose"
"I Try to Walk Away" (Xavier)
"Walking Blues"
"Freight Train"
----intermission----
"Alice's Restaurant"
"When the Soldier Makes it Home"
"Ring Around-a-Rosy Rag"
"Darkest Hour"
"Young Girl's Mind" (Sarah Lee)
??????
"City of New Orleans"
"This Land is Your Land"
---encore:---
"Doors of Heaven"
"Goodnight Irene"

Arlo told several hillariously-told anecdotes, too many to recall. Here is
the Dylan content: He was talking about songwriting like fishing, and said
something like you should try not to fish for songs downstream from Bob
Dylan. He also said something about imitating Dylan when making a radio
promo for one of his albums, then being forced to get permission from Bob by
his record company. He said Bob called him back saying he'd like him to do a
promo for his next album. This was in 1982, he must have lost his number
He really played all of the songs I wanted especially to hear. Lots of
it was just good fun, but there were some really beautiful performaces, too,
including "When the Soldier Makes it Home", "Darkest Hour," and "City of New
Orleans". The latter, as well as "Alice's Restaurant", "This Land is Your
Land", and "Goodnight Irene" had the whole crowd singing along. It reminded
me of hearing those old Weavers songs where they have the audience sing
along, very different from seeing Bob. Arlo's son Abe's band Xavier played a
song, which was alright, but not really my style. His daughter Sara Lee did
a couple songs, and she has a very strong, beautiful voice (I also think she
is really pretty, but that is beside the point I think she might have a
real future ahead of her in the music business... its so wonderful to see
the Guthrie legacy being carried on to the 3rd generation.
After the show, Arlo signed autographs for everyone, and I got my copy
of Virgil's Aeneid signed (it was all I had with me . All in all, it was
a great night of comedy, rock, 3 generations of Guthrie songwriting, old
folk songs, rockin' tunes, emotionally-stirring songs, and just an overall
wonderful time. I highly recommend seeing Arlo if he comes to your town, you
won't go away unhappy.

-Brandon

what a great review, brandon! thanks for posting it over here, and welcome to arlonet! sounds like you had a wonderful time, and might become more than just a casual fan now.

Thanks Z-man! I am a new blunderite, and I saw him do alot of the same songs in Louisville, KY at a local folk festival. I was already in love before the show, but I looked at alot of the songs differently after hearing Arlo's take on them. I recently saw him at the Guthrie Center for their annual fundraiser. He did almost a completely different set. So, my point is, and I do have one, is that you should see him whenever and wherever you can. It is always something different. I drag as many people with me as I can. I know that to the average joe, a love affair may not be possible by mere studio productions. But one cannot not love Arlo after seeing him live. By the way, traveling to see him is even better. The show at the Guthrie Center was sweetened by the effort put forth to see him. I got to see beautiful landscapes and towns, and I even dragged my best friend with me(she is a moderate fan, but I'm working on her). I think on Laurlee's hippy test one of the questions involves crossing statelines to see a musician from the 60's. I crossed 6 that weekend. (I crossed even more coming home, we were talking and missed a couple of turns ) So great, so great! Keep on blundering, it's the only way to travel!!!!

Thanks for that review!

Deb,..."devil bitch"?....heeheeheheeeh!!

Even if ya hear the same stories & songs lots of times you always get something new out of each one.

gemini...too bad we didn't know you were going to the GC, a lot of us were there!

kitty..