all in the family

I used to go to concerts all the time, if there was a musical act within a few hundred miles that I wanted to see, I would make it happen. That has changed a bit, and I don't get out to that kind of thing much anymore, partially because I'm generally in bed when a lot of concerts start.

A nice exception was a few months ago when a friend called me up and told me that she has a friend who is in Dweezil Zappa's band for the Zappa Plays Zappa tour and had put her on the door list, plus one. I have never been a fan of Frank Zappa's music but it was free and might be fun and I knew my friend wouldn't go alone, so I agreed. It turned out to be fun, we got hit on, the music was pretty good, and Dweezil is still cutie cute. Even though we had backstage passes we were too tired to stay until the end; maybe if the cheap seats were actually "seats" at the House of Blues and we hadn't had to stand the whole time, but we're just not as young as we used to be.

My first boyfriend was Arlo Guthrie. Neither he nor his wife knew it, but I was sure of it, we were destined to be together at some point, it wasn't if, but when. Years later I saw him in concert a few times; he was awesome, a great performer, funny, did some great songs, etc. But he wasn't that cutie from Alice's Restaurant anymore, he was resembling the Cowardly Lion a little. I still adored him, but not in that way anymore. I was brought up listening to folk music and it holds a special place in my heart, one of my favorite concert albums ever is the one that Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie did together called "Precious Friend;" Arlo does some of his funny monologues and Pete has everyone singing along.

So last week when my mom suggested that we go see Arlo's daughter Sarah Lee at the Belly Up I was skeptical. Mom had seen her (and her husband Johnny Irion, they tour together along with their infant and an older child) before and said they were amazing, but I was skeptical. I was worried that she had built her career on famous family. But mom made it sound fun, it was her treat, and we would go out to eat beforehand. We ate at the restaurant attached to the Belly Up, the Wild Note Cafe. The food was great, neither of us was starving so we split a meal and were well satisfied, topping it off with creme brulee.

While we were buying our tickets Sarah Lee and Johnny were doing a sound check, and it seemed we were going to be in for a real treat. We ate a leisurely dinner and then went back for the opening act, Gregory Page, who was cute, funny, and a great performer. I decided that I had time to go get my knitting before it all and worked on a mindless project, which helped me take my mind off of the uncomfortable chairs.

When Sarah Lee and Johnny took the stage, though, I didn't need anything to take my mind off of it, they were captivating, so sweet together, emotionally and musically. They were really magical, singing great original tunes with amazing harmony. At one point they did a Woody Guthrie tune and it hit me that she isn't just the daughter of Arlo, she is the granddaughter of Woody. That's some powerful medicine. Here is the song they did that I liked best. Get out to see them if you can! Thanks, mom, for making it happen.