American singer, songwriter, humanitarian, businessman and actor. Guthrie performs as a storyteller, folksinger, and humorist at folk festival stages around the country. By 1994, he had recorded over 17 albums.
Guthrie’s father was the legendary folk balladeer, Woody Guthrie. His mother was Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, a dancer and teacher with the Martha Graham dance company. His father played the role of househusband and baby-sitter to his children. Guthrie’s older sister Cathy Ann died in a fire at the age of four before he was born and his dad penned children’s songs to help heal the family grief. Arlo was the second child followed by brother Jody born in 1949 and sister Nora in 1950. The Guthrie family was brought up with a social action ethic as members of the Old Left political traditions.
At six, Arlo received his first guitar from his father. Guthrie in the ’60s was in the U.S. Army. On Thanksgiving 1965, he was arrested and convicted of a misdemeanor for littering outside the famous Alice’s Restaurant in Massachusetts. Banned from the Army, Arlo Guthrie became a member of the ’60s counter-culture movement. He sang, played guitar, piano, harmonica and banjo and wrote the hippie song “Alice’s Restaurant.”
In 1967, Guthrie became famous at the Newport Folk Festival following in the footsteps of his father who died the same year. Guthrie continued to write over a hundred folk-songs. In 1982, when Warner Brother Records purged the contracts of their counter-culture artists, Guthrie bought the rights to his records and set up his own record company, Rising Son Music. He sold his records by direct mail marketing to his fans along with his newsletter, “Rolling Blunder Review.” In 1989, an unpublished book of Woody Guthrie’s songs for children was found by chance on a library shelf at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Guthrie and his siblings recorded the songs in a loving tribute to their father. With the use of electronic mixing, the singing voice of Woody Guthrie was blended with the contemporary voices of his adult family. The album, “Woody’s 20 Grow Big Songs,” was nominated for a Grammy award.
Guthrie still performs at folk festivals around the country. Occasionally he will sing his father’s signature song, “This Land is Your Land.” He likes to work with his father’s friend and collaborator, Pete Seeger. In 1994, at 46, Guthrie was the star of a short-lived comedy series “The Byrds of Paradise” for the ABC network.
In 1969, Guthrie met his wife, Jackie Hyde, at the Troubador in West Hollywood. She fell in love with him on first sight and they married two months later. While they have been married for more than 25 years, they have had marriage problems due to his years of touring on the road and they have separated three times. Still in love today, they have four children. Their oldest son, Abe was born in 1970 and he was followed by three sisters. The family lives on a 250-acre farm outside Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Guthrie set up his own charitable center called the Guthrie Center, located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He gives money to support abused children’s causes, aid for family farmers, and services to elderly and to the terminally ill. He is a member of a Catholic lay brotherhood and has studied for eight years under his Jewish-Catholic-Hindu guru, Ma Jaya.
Guthrie quit taking drugs after his son Abe was born in 1970. His grandmother and father died of the hereditary incurable nerve disorder, Huntington’s Disease, giving him the heritage of a 50/50 chance in acquiring the disease. His brother Jody’s test turned out negative. Arlo and his sister Nora refuse to take the test.
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