Guthrie makes tour a family affair

The Buskirk-Chumley Theater was full of Guthrie spirit Saturday night with Arlo Guthrie performing along with family members and friends. Arlo is the oldest son of Woody Guthrie, one of the forefathers of folk music.\nThe show displayed the closeness between Arlo Guthrie and his father through Arlo Guthrie's performance of several of his father's songs.\n"I loved when he was talking about his dad teaching him songs in the backyard," said Bloomington resident Cinde Leistikow. "You could really visualize them together in their backyard."\nArlo performed with his son Abe Guthrie, his friend Gordon Titcomb, and his daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie, and her husband Johnny Irion. The theater packed in people of all ages, but the crowd was mostly full of people who had grown up with Arlo Guthrie in the '60s, the era when Arlo Guthrie became famous.\nThroughout the show, Arlo Guthrie told stories, with quite possibly more stories than songs. \n"It made me feel like we're a special crowd to him," said 15-year-old Sarah VanTassel, a student at Bloomington High School North.\nArlo Guthrie started the show off with "Oklahoma Hills," written by his father and his uncle, Jack Guthrie. After a few songs -- each accompanied by a story -- Arlo Guthrie admitted that "we don't have a plan up here, by the way. I did in '68."\nThe song "Kindness" by Irion was prefaced with Sarah Lee Guthrie's telling of a story about her father buying a church in 1991. When asked what kind of church it was going to be, she said that he responded: "It's a bring-your-own-God church." That church he bought is known as the Guthrie Center and is devoted to preserving different religious views, as well as protecting indigenous cultures.\nAfter an intermission, the musicians came on stage and performed an instrumental song, followed by the famous 18-and-a-half-minute song "Alice's Restaurant." At the end, Arlo Guthrie enticed the crowd to join in, saying: "If you want to end war, you have to sing loud so everyone can hear you."\nThe American classic, "This Land is Your Land," by Woody Guthrie was the last song of the set. Arlo Guthrie stopped this song twice to tell stories. Coming back on stage for an encore, he played a sound clip of his father telling a story over the PA system. \n"I felt his stories added a lot to the event," said 18--year--old Bloomington resident David Sisson.\nThe final song, "My Peace," was a sentimental piece with lyrics by Woody Guthrie and music by Arlo Guthrie. With the closing lyrics: "I pass my peace around and about 'cross hands of every hue; I guess my peace is justa 'bout all I've got to give to you," this song expressed the sentiment that if people work on achieving inner peace, the outer world peace could fall into place.\n"In a world that sucks -- like this one -- you don't have to do much to make a difference," Arlo Guthrie said.