Author: Michael Witthaus

Sarah Lee Guthrie finds her own voice

Two New Year’s Days ago Sarah Lee Guthrie wrote on Instagram, “Good morning 2020, I love you already.” With a few West Coast shows booked ahead of playing in the band on her dad Arlo’s national tour, the future gleamed. But in early March, right after she got to Solvang, California, the world shut down.

Guthrie holed up there, releasing videos made in a culvert near the Santa Ynez River. Songs came from her life as “a link in a chain of folk singers,” starting with grandpa Woody Guthrie, with selections from Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs.

A pair of originals from the so-called Culvert Sessions — an aching ode to her late mother and the longing “Seven Sisters,” a performance inspired by a full moon — hinted at the core of her hejira.

“I hadn’t really stepped into what could be known as a Sarah Lee Guthrie solo career after breaking up with Johnny [Irion, her husband and musical partner since 2000],” she said in a recent phone interview. “I’ve been kind of dipping my toes in all kinds of different directions to determine how to capture me, my essence. How do I put it down there?”

Beyond that, isolation was a totally new feeling that sparked waves of energy.

“I hadn’t actually lived alone ever in my entire adult life, and it’s the first time I was actually in one place for two whole months,” she said. “Then I found this amazing little portal of creativity. … I loved it.”

After lockdown was lifted, Guthrie found her way to Austin, Texas, where her sister Cathy now lives. The move sparked her latest creative flowering. The Guthrie Girls & the Stage Door Johnnies is a honky tonk band that holds down a weekly residency at Sam’s Town Point, a no-nonsense, music-forward bar located at the city’s southern tip.

The new effort took shape when Guthrie reluctantly agreed to play a folk jam.

“I’ve played listening rooms, theaters and schools, libraries and coffee houses all over the world, but bars … I’m just not good at them,” she said. But her sister wasn’t buying it, telling her, “just get over yourself and play.”

Her first night, “all these guys started to join me on stage, kind of uninvited, but really funny,” she said. “It was like, ‘Hey, I’m going to go grab my guitar, I’m going to grab my bass, let’s jam. I’m going to go find a drummer,’ [and] all of a sudden I have a band. … This place sucked me in and I have not left because it is so fun. My entire view of how to make music, why we make music, my relationship to music, just totally shifted.”

The nature of her employment also changed. The two sisters work behind the bar at Sam’s when they’re not performing, a situation necessitated by her father’s retirement from touring and live shows.

“I’m laid off and she’s laid off in a sense. She was working for my dad, and also making music with Amy Nelson in Folk Uke,” she said.

Cathy’s ex, Ramsey Millwood — the two share a child — is a singer-songwriter who owns and runs the bar.

Guthrie rapidly assimilated into Austin life.

“It’s really its own country,” she said, “and the coolest thing is that there’s so many great musicians, living a very unpretentious lifestyle going around from club to club. Our favorite people are always there, Charlie Sexton or Charley Crockett or Paul Cousin….”

Her uncle, folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, stopped by recently.

“This is a haven for people like Jack. There’s old cars in the back. We have one of my dad’s buses there that we’ve been fixing up and the guys all love to sit around and talk about what needs to be done to it. And a bunch of singing cowboys; I was like, ‘Jack, you gotta come hang out with us.’”

Leading a band is exhilarating, liberating, she said.

“Playing with Arlo and my brother, I’m just a little sister, a daughter,” she said. “Coming into a territory where I’m actually driving is feeling really good; I’m empowered. These guys have great taste, there’s great music. I’m inspired, and I love singing with Cathy. Having a band that loves coming to play your songs! It’s just like, oh man, feeling that for my own self. … It’s been life-changing.”

Looking back at her long-ago ’gram post now fills Guthrie with regret’s opposite.

“I did love it,” she said. “I know that it’s been a hard year, but … we spend so much time trying to decide whether it’s good or bad; I’m just over it. I just want to experience. I’m an optimist, so I saw the good in 2020 like you wouldn’t believe. … I’m so much happier.”

Sarah Lee Guthrie w/ Tristan Omand
When: Saturday, Aug. 14, 2 p.m.
Where: Stone Church, 5 Granite St., Newmarket
Tickets: $25 at stonechurchrocks.com ($30 at the door)

Also Friday, Aug. 13, 7:30 p.m. at Brewbakers, 48 Emerald St., Keene ($25 at novarts.org) with Charlie Chronopoulos.

Featured photo: Sarah Lee Guthrie. Courtesy photo.

Ace Aceto brings the funny to Chunky’s

Ace Aceto thinks that right now is a great time to be a comedian —‌ even hecklers are deferential.

“At one show, someone was yelling stuff out, just excited to be there,” he said by phone recently. “I shut him down [by] making light of it. He came up to me after, saying, ‘Man, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to mess with you. I was having a good time.’ I’m like, ‘I get it; you weren’t yelling ‘Boo,’ or ‘This guy sucks,’ or anything like that.’”

Aceto’s standup career started in another golden age. In the 1980s, the Boston comedy scene, led by standups like Steven Wright, Lenny Clarke and Barry Crimmins, haloed its way through New England and to his home state of Rhode Island. Mixing a catalog of impressions with stories of his Catholic upbringing, he found his footing at Periwinkles comedy club in Providence.

In 1991 the Comedy Channel, later to merge with Ha! and become Comedy Central, held a contest at Periwinkles, with a dozen winners getting time on the network, including Aceto. Seeing himself on television made him euphoric.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this is a real thing,’” he said.

He hasn’t looked back; in 2015, Aceto was inducted into the Rhode Island Comedy Hall of Fame.

The past year presented many challenges for Aceto and his brethren, and he adapted even when it seemed a bit crazy.

“If someone two or three years ago said, ‘I’ve got this great show —‌ you’re going to be up on a platform in a parking lot and people are going to be in their cars,’ you’d be like, there is no freaking way I’m doing that,” he said. “Or ‘Hey, we’re going to be outside at a vineyard with Christmas lights up all over the place.’ I’ve done a couple of vineyards with maybe 80 people in a little courtyard, and everyone is just there to have fun.”

While agreeing that the pent-up need to laugh is causing a spike in its appeal, “comedy constantly ebbs and flows,” Aceto said. “I don’t know if anything will come close to that Big Eighties boom, because there’s also a million people calling themselves comics these days, and none of the late night shows have comics on anymore.”

Back in the day, “that was your goal, to get on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson or Leno or Letterman; you used to chase that TV credit,” he said. “Now it matters how many followers you have on YouTube or TikTok or social media. Because from a club owner’s point of view, they’re trying to put [butts] in the seats.”

This mindset can backfire, Aceto said.

“There’s a guy on TikTok guy who always does Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Mark Wahlberg, the same three guys, in different scenarios. ‘Here’s Mark Wahlberg and Vince Vaughn fighting over who’s going to pay the bill at the restaurant.’ He does an amazing job, but could that carry a 45-minute standup set?”

Even though the clock can’t be totally turned back, “I think we’re going to see another boom in live comedy,” Aceto said. “People have been sick of watching it on Netflix and Zoom. They want to see that live aspect to it. I’ve got a lot of friends in bands who have seen more fans come out than ever, as people are starting to appreciate what they took for granted.”

With fellow standup Scott Higgins, Aceto hosts Behind The Funny, a podcast focused on the craft now in its fifth year.

Aceto appears Aug. 7 at Chunky’s Pub and Cinema in Manchester, a show booked by comedy impresario Rob Steen.

“I’ve known Ace since we were 19 or so doing comedy,” Steen said. “He has worked hard and is super funny and mostly he is squeaky clean, which is rare in comedy. I’m excited to have him on my shows; he is a consummate professional.”

Ace Aceto
When: Saturday, Aug. 7, 8:30 p.m.
Where: Chunky’s Pub & Cinema, 707 Huse Road, Manchester
Tickets: $20 at chunkys.com

Featured photo: Ace Aceto. Courtesy photo.

Jonathan Edwards brings new album to Tupelo

Like many in his profession, Jonathan Edwards spent the past several months working on new music, due the a pandemic-induced break from live performing. The result is the wonderful Right Where I Am. His first studio album since 2015, it’s at turns reflective, introspective and celebratory, the latter best represented by “50 Years,” a thank-you note to fans written for a 2017 anniversary show.

“I figured going in I better write a song for this event,” Edwards said in a recent phone interview, “because it was turning out to be a big one. So I did, and the first time I played it was that night at the party.”

He was joined by Livingston Taylor and Jon Pousette-Dart, two friends from his early days on the New England music scene.

The party-hearty groover “Drop and Roll” is one of two co-writes on the LP with Edwards’ son-in-law Jerome Degey. Its sentiments will be familiar to anyone who sang along to “Shanty” from his debut album, when Edwards exhorted listeners to “put a good buzz on.”

This time, he sings “roll over and burn one down” on a tune written in the middle of the night. “It’s kind of a stream-of-consciousness,” he said. “I’m very proud of that song in that it’s kind of subtle but… ‘roll me up a fatty, Bob Marley be proud.’ You know, come on!”

The title track is a statement of purpose. “I’ve got a lot of songs within me still, stories left to tell,” he sings.

“It’s part of my DNA. I’ve always been a creative sort,” he said, quoting another line from the song. “I’ve always built stuff out of other stuff. I went to art school and four years of college and eventually the guitar and rock ’n’ roll took over. Since then, I have many, many outlets for my creativity, and it’s hard to focus often, but I think the introspection that we had during lockdown was really conducive to more creativity, and appreciation for being able to express oneself.” He also states boldly in the song, “I’m not afraid to take a stand and bleed upon the stage … pay the price to tell the truth.”

“Perhaps [that image is] maybe a little too colorful, but that’s what it feels like,” Edwards said, adding that as he approaches his 75th year, “my challenge now is mostly physical.”

He co-produced the new record with longtime friend and accompanist Don Campbell, with help from Todd Hutchinson at his Acadia Recording studio in Portland, Maine.

“I loved it there. … It looks like a yard sale, with all these vintage amps and guitars everywhere … a very creative place,” Edwards said, and it made the work easier. “It’s a corny thing to say, but we followed the songs where they led us, and I’m really, really happy with that destination.”

He’s also pleased with the positive response Right Where I Am is receiving.

“It’s great, because you never know,” he said. “You put [these songs] out there as children, and you never know how they’re going to be accepted by society,” he said.

Edwards was scheduled to return to the stage on his birthday, July 28, at Jonathan’s in Ogunquit, Maine. Two nights later, he’ll play one of the final shows at Tupelo Drive-In, as the venue prepares to return indoors in mid-August.

“I miss the crowd for sure, and I miss the energy that only they can provide,” he said. “I can sit around and play with my friends, which is also really nice, but boy, getting out in front of a crowd….”

He nods to the al fresco event in Derry.

“In this case, and it’s really apt, that’s where the rubber meets the parking lot,” he said.

Jonathan Edwards
When: Friday, July 30, 6 p.m.
Where: Tupelo Drive-In, 10 A St., Derry
Tickets: $22 per person, $75 per car at tupelohall.com

Featured photo: Alli Beaudry. Courtesy photo.