Guthrie out of father’s shadow

As he starts an Irish tour, Arlo Guthrie recalls how his father Woody gave him his first guitar when he was just five, writes Gerry Quinn

SINGER, songwriter and political activist Arlo Guthrie begins 14 Irish dates this week. The solo tour is billed as ‘Here Comes The Kid’, a reference to 100th anniversary this year of his father Woody Guthrie’s birth. Guthrie Senior’s musical legacy includes countless political, traditional and children’s songs and his best known composition ‘This Land Is Your Land’ is one of the most popular and recognisable in the vast canon of American song.

Woody Guthrie died in 1967 from complications of Huntington’s disease.