As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Monday, February 9, 2015

Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour, Weinberg Center for the Arts (Frederick MD), 2/5/2015


Wonderful show by Arlo and band (including his son Abe) this past Thursday – highly recommended even if you’re not a huge fan. (You will come out a bigger fan.) Started by performing “Motorcycle Song” along with a cartoon version from the 60s that recently turned up. Anecdotes abounded, from Woodstock to Rambling Jack Elliott “keeping an eye on him” when he made his first trip to California to perform. Kicked off the second set with “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, synced to scenes from the movie of the same name, and encored with a touching audience sing-along to “Peace Song”, for which Arlo had written a tune to go with his father’s lyrics. Other highlights included “Coming into Los Angeles”, “Me And My Goose”, “City of New Orleans” (which according to Arlo was turned down by Johnny Cash), and of course “This Land Is Your Land”.
 
We decided to go to the Weinberg rather than to one of the two shows at the Birchmere since they offered reserved seating. We were in the left orchestra section on the aisle in row T – not bad, but a little distant. Lucked out a bit dinner-wise at Sumittra, a nice Thai restaurant a block away, by getting two seats without having made a reservation. Hadn’t expected a big crowd on a Thursday evening, but it’s not a large place.

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