Archive News
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie keeping family flame alive
Date Published: 29-Aug-2012
Arlo Guthrie’s concert at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway on Sunday next, September 2 is a show that will appeal to fans of classic folk music.
Arlo is steeped in the American roots tradition – he is the oldest son of folk legend Woody Guthrie, who died in 1967. From an early age, Arlo seemed destined to take up the family trade.
“My father gave me my first guitar when I was five years old,” he says. “I’ve been playing ever since, but it wasn’t until I was 12 when I began to play with my friends in school. The interest in folk music had been kindled by groups like the Kingston Trio and was raging during the late 50s and early 60s. I discovered that playing a guitar had benefits quite aside from being a musician. It was a ‘chick magnet’ and a friend maker. I learned everything I could listen to records or going to see my dad’s friends when they were in New York (where I grew up).”
At the tender age of 13, Arlo made his debut in Greenwich Village, the hub of New York’s thriving folk scene while attending a concert by the seminal singer, Cisco Huston.
“He was ill and dying from cancer,” says Arlo. “During his gig he asked me if I would sing a few songs. I grabbed my guitar and walked toward the small stage. At first I lost the feeling in my legs. Then as I approached the microphone I couldn’t breathe.
“I was terrified and shaking so badly I thought I was going to pass out. But, somehow I got through a few songs. I got off the stage and went into the dressing room vowing that I would never do that again – ever. And naturally, I’ve been doing just that ever since!”
Arlo has over 50 years of singing behind him. He draws from his own back catalogue, as well as singing Woody Guthrie classics like This Land Is Your Land.
“I generally work the gigs out so I know what I’m doing for any given tour, but it’s flexible,” Arlo says. “I like being able to relate to whatever is going on at the gig. I just ended a two-month tour with all my kids and grandkids. With 16 people on stage you’d better have a plan or it can turn to chaos pretty quickly! So, I’m really looking forward to this solo tour of Ireland where I can do whatever I remember I know.”
This year marks what would have been Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday and the two-month family tour was a celebration of his centenary year, part of a project called Woody 100. Much of Woody 100 has been driven by Pete Seeger, the 93-year-old folk singer who played This Land Is Your Land at Barack Obama’s inauguration concert.
“Every night we perform together as a family is about the most fun anyone could have and still be legal,” Arlo says. “We’re all going our separate ways for a little while, but then in November we will get everyone back together for a few gigs, ending at Carnegie Hall with my old friend Pete. If it wasn’t for Pete, we would not be celebrating my dad’s 100th with so much interest from the public. He is the one who really carried that torch for decades.”
Arlo’s life as troubadour has taken him all over the world. What is it about the folk tradition that has such an international appeal?
“Everybody has a musical tradition of some kind that they are born with,” Arlo says. “For some it remains a vital part of their lives. The ‘folk tradition’ is just words trying to describe what your musical legacy is and how you learn to carry it on in your own way. It’s as true in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East as it is anywhere else. The music might sound different, but the feelings are the same.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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