Arlo Guthrie honors heritage with family-style tour

Few last names in the history of American music are as evocative as "Guthrie." Just hearing it makes one think of dusty roads, beat-up acoustic guitars and the quest for social justice.

Arlo Guthrie understands the baggage that comes with his name. And he loves it.

The 62-year-old Guthrie, the eldest son of American folk icon Woody Guthrie, will celebrate his family's musical heritage, past and present, with a couple of shows in the suburbs this weekend. The "Guthrie Family Rides Again Tour" will stop Friday at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn and Saturday at the Genesee Theater in Waukegan.

Guthrie will take the stage, of course, and so will all four of his children and at least some of his seven grandchildren. In addition to their own music, the Guthries will also perform some of the new songs that artists like Wilco and Billy Bragg wrote using previously unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics.

"It's pretty special to have four generations of Guthries represented in some way on the tour," Guthrie said during a phone interview. "You start to notice things about the family. Like even though my children are into different kinds of music, there's a certain humor and political sense that runs through it all. I love being able to see that."

If there's an era that gets the most attention during the show, it would be the 1960s. That's when Guthrie came into his own as a musician, activist and storyteller with offbeat hits like "Coming to Los Angeles" and "Alice's Restaurant," the latter an 18-minute talking-and-singing epic that continues to be played on Thanksgiving Day on rock stations all over the country.

Adding to the '60s focus is that the tour takes place 40 years after the legendary Woodstock festival (at which Guthrie performed) and shortly after Guthrie released "Arlo Guthrie: Tales of '69" (Rising Son Records), a recently discovered recording of Guthrie performing in Long Island shortly before Woodstock.

"The whole Woodstock thing was such a rare moment," Guthrie said. "That was when the business guys were actually more concerned about the safety of the crowd than in making money, so they opened it up to everyone. And look at everything that followed from that.

"I can't see that happening today. The need for the immediate buck is just too strong now."

Don't let all this '60s talk make you think Guthrie is stuck in the past. He maintains a Web site and regularly posts commentaries about contemporary social and political issues like health care reform and economic policy. He also makes his music available on digital download sites like iTunes.

"The Internet is fabulous, though there's a dangerous side to it, too," he said. "We don't have as many filters in place as we used to, so misinformation exists right alongside the real stuff. You need to have more discernment.

"On the other hand, when you look at things like music, my icon on iTunes appears just as big as ones for musicians that have multimillion-dollar corporations behind them. I can actually compete against much larger corporate entities. That's exciting."