Saw where Mountain Stage has a show in Huntington April 29 at the Keith-Albee. It’s part of this year’s 75th anniversary celebration of the Marshall Artist Series and the folks at Marshall are hopeful this is going to be big.
Well, that remains to be seen. On the one hand, they’ve got two acts: Arlo Guthrie and Paul Thorn.
Paul is kind of a local favorite, kind of like Todd Snyder. They come up this way and people go out to see them. Mostly, I think, because they’re funny singer/songwriters.
And having Arlo come is good timing. Sure, he’s played “Mountain Stage” a bunch of times, but this year is also his dad, Woody Guthrie’s 100th year (if he were still alive, which he is not) and there appear to be events coming together toward celebrating that.
I suspect Arlo will be playing some of his dad’s tunes, which are considered a national treasure, and that fits in all kinds of ways for a concert at a university.
But… it doesn’t really sizzle for me. I want to think this is very cool, but I’m just not quite there yet.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I like Arlo and a “Mountain Stage” show that was kind of a celebration of Woody Guthrie would rock if it was packed with artists each doing a Guthrie tune, but… I don’t know if that’s what this is going to be. I can see how it might be done and how that would really fit in with what “Mountain Stage” is about, but… (sigh) every time I start programming what I think “Mountain Stage” is going to do, producer Adam Harris has a nice, long laugh then helps himself to another candy bar from the snack machine.
He looks like a Twix man. I don’t think he shares.
Anyway, I’m probably completely wrong. There’s probably no grand plan. It’s just who they could get when they could get them.
Anyway, the show is April 29. I think it looks promising. Tickets are $35.