Any terrace chants of ‘One Arlo Guthrie, there’s only one Arlo Guthrie’ need to be tempered by the fact that there are, in fact, two. One of them, granted, is an impostor who has been offering to do gigs in the North Western states of the USA. Which is why you might be surprised to read Arlo is playing a show in, say, North Carolina one night and another all the way over in Seattle the next. The fact is, the guy at Seattle isn’t THE Arlo Guthrie.

It’s difficult to comprehend what Fake Arlo is trying to achieve. The real Guthrie is popular but hardly X-Factor material. Plus, Arlo is pretty easy to recognize. The minute this ersatz Guthrie steps on stage – assuming he even makes it that far – he’s going to be rumbled. Still, none of this is making it easier for the real Arlo to sell tickets in the North Western US.
Fortunately, it’s real Arlo Guthrie that Old Flattop are bringing to Ireland on the first leg of his Here Comes The Kid tour. This is as big a year for the Guthrie family as it’s going to get. They have been marking Woody Guthrie’s centenary in a way that Woody himself would very likely have wholeheartedly approved of, by gigging around the US through the summer before decamping to Europe for the autumn.
One of Guthrie’s aspirations for his sprawling family was that they might travel around playing together and although there have been a couple of Guthrie Family tours before, this time, with everyone involved a little older, it seems it has been working and sounding sweeter.
After Tonder Folk Festival ‘the kid’ splits off from the rest of the posse and heads for Ireland where he plays what has to be his most extensive set of dates so far. He’s at the Pavilion, Cork (September 6), Dolan’s, Limerick (7), St. James’ Church, Dingle (8), the Market House Theatre in Miltown Malbay (10), Murph’s Bar, Tramore (11), the Black Box, Belfast (13), the Venue Theatre, Ratoath (14), McGrory’s in Culdaff (15), the Hawks Well Theatre in Sligo (16). The final date is Dublin’s Button Factory (19). Some nights have already sold out. So snap up those tickets.
The Lost Brothers’ So Long John Fante was one of the best-received albums of 2011, building a considerable buzz around a duo who have been characterised as a ‘ragged Everly Brothers’, although their songwriting marks them as more of a modern-day Louvin Brothers. Whatever description appeals, the clear melodic lines and close harmonies will sound familiar and old fashioned in the best sense. The last year has seen them in the studio in Nashville with Brendan Benson working on The Passing Of The Night, their third full-length release. They never intended putting together an entire album with Benson. They’d toured quite a bit with the Detroit singer and he had offered to help them record a couple of tracks. Once they got into the studio, though, they realised that the music was flowing. So they decided to keep going. The album will be released Friday, September 21 and while it would be lovely to conclude with the traditional sigh off of ‘a full Irish tour will support the release’, the guys are far too much in demand elsewhere. If you missed them at the Tall Ships and the Tara Rocks Festival, your only chance to see them here in the immediate future is at the Spirit of Folk Festival.
A while back I mentioned that singer Len Graham, storyteller Jack Lynch and poet Theo Dorgan were teaming up to work on a show called Rhyme, Rant & Rann. Although I’m a fan of their work individually, I had no real idea how they were going to function together. During the week I had the chance to record them for RTÉ 2XM’s The C Word. It was one of the best afternoon’s craic I’ve had in a recording studio. The three performers have known each other so long that there is a tremendous rapport between them and a seamless flow of songs, stories and poems, each tipping off a response from one of the others.
All of this interplay points towards something that I strongly suspect these three always knew: there is a tremendous musicality inherent in all language when it is used by someone who knows what they’re doing. Their tour gets underway with a performance for Culture Night in Tralee’s Siamsa Tire on Friday 21 September followed by a visit to the Clifden Arts Festival (27), the Glens Centre in Manorhamilton (28), the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (Wednesday 3 October), Droichead Art Centre, Drogheda (4), The Triskel, Cork (13), Iontas, Castleblayney (16), Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire (18) and ends with a performance in the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray on Saturday, November 17.