goddessfarmer | Something FUN

Despite being ill (and feeling ill) I wasn't going to miss seeing Arlo Guthrie play at Symphony Hall last night. Yes, I was toast, but I am sure glad I went. In honor of fairly recently past and a nearly future birthday for some very special people, I purchased the tickets pretty much as soon as they were available and we were in the front row, right of center.

theloriest took photos to show just how close we were. "We" were myself,

chocorua ,

eventing_ponies ,

theloriest ,

marius23 , and

linetoinfinity . C, E, T and I started the evening with dinner at Jacob Wirth, which was excellent, as usual. Having left ourselves plenty of time, we then took a leisurely stroll down Newbury St on our way to Symphony Hall.

theloriest didn't find the little shop she was looking for, but I chivvied her into Emack and Bolio's after

chocorua . I was thoroughly disinterested in ice cream, but they enjoyed theirs. We still got to Symphony Hall in plenty of time, but it was good to sit down. Since I hadn't told anyone where our seats were, they were all very pleasantly surprised. The looks on some of their faces were pretty much priceless. The show opened with 2 pieces by the Boston Symphony, who was then joined by a trio called "Time for Three". They are not your 'classical' 2 fiddles and a bass. These boys rocked that music.

theloriest has a lot more info over in her (locked) journal. Then there was intermission.

And then Arlo came on. It was a wonderful night, with wonderful people and wonderful music, and for a little while, I might have even managed to ignore my body's pain.

And here, because I like the way she wrote it, used with permission from

theloriest 's journal, is the blow-by blow:

Here is the list of songs he and the orchestra performed together:

*Darkest Hour
*Last Train
*(a blues song about New Orleans, I don't know the title)
*If You Would Just Drop By
*Epilogue
(Told a story about Woodstock that had us doubled over in our seats laughing)
*Coming Into Los Angeles
(had to stop the orchestra at the beginning because he messed up and needed to start over)
*City of New Orleans
*You Are the Song (music by Charlie Chaplin)
*This Land is Your Land
(again he interrupted himself in the middle of the song)

"I just had a thought. Probably shouldn't have thought it in the middle of the song. But at my age you take thoughts whenever you can get them. And oh well, already stopped one song tonight."

He then proceeded to tell a story about his dad and the first time he heard the song outside of his home. And how he realized that people all over the world knew his dad's music. This really touched me. And then he had the audience join him in singing the song.

The orchestra then left him to play his encore piece all alone on the stage.

*Goodnight Irene