Artist: Arlo Guthrie
Album: Alice's Restaurant: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack
Label: Omnivore Records
Release Date: 8.23.2019
In many ways, many of us grew up with Arlo Guthrie always around. Son of the legendary folk-civil libertarian musician, Woody Guthrie, Arlo never quite went for that familial mantle, instead cutting himself a place in the emerging music world with music that often surprised and always remained firmly rooted in sparkling melodic quality, underpinned by his truly delightful vocal delivery.
For those of us old enough, the album, Alice’s Restaurant: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack, takes us back to a time when life seemed simpler, full of promise and hippy-esque fun. The eponymous movie itself was nothing if not bizarrely good fun, starring Arlo himself and directed by Arthur Penn, a guy who went on to pick up an Oscar nomination for that project before going on to direct Bonnie & Clyde. This release, a full half-century later, has its share of repetitive themes rumbling through its 22 tracks, but nevertheless remains nothing short of a genuine pleasure. For the first time, all tracks from both the 1969 original film score and the 1998 reissue are included, with a dozen previously unreleased numbers, including one featuring the late Pete Seeger and another with
Gene Shay.
Guthrie is a remarkably fine guitar picker, often overlooked in a world of fast-paced, fretworkers who think speed and noise will overcome other limitations. With Arlo you sort-of get what you see: a rounded, rippling acoustic mastery that harkens back to that time in the 1970s when so many great US pickers bubbled to the surface, honing their craft and delighting fans and audiences globally; names like Jim Croce, James Taylor come to mind while Arlo always slipped below the radar, possibly if not probably by self-imposed dictate. And yet as you listen to the recurrent themesong from this release, lend an ear to the guitar, that ringing ragtime-y roll that was already a central part of his picking ability. This is a fine album, and for those yet to catch the film or the music a worthwhile introduction to a freewheeling time now seemingly long-lost.
—Iain Patience
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