Singer-songwriter Sarah Lee Guthrie lands in Macon on Wednesday, October 4th to make her debut at Capricorn Sound Studios for an intimate show of brand-new songs, old favorites, and the stories behind them all.
And while audience members can expect a world-class education in Roots, Folk, and Country music that evening from the daughter and granddaughter of the first family of American Folk, Guthrie herself is ready to be a student, taking in the sounds and stories of Macon’s rich music history, too.
“I’m coming in oblivious. I need an education!” she joked to The Creek ahead of her performance at the legendary studio and museum.
“If this is where Otis Redding and the Allman Brothers came out of, let’s just say I’m hugely affected and I’m really, really excited.”
It’s true that Guthrie’s family legacy enters a room before she does, though the singer-songwriter doesn’t struggle one bit beneath the weight of her last name. Both her father, Arlo Guthrie, and her grandfather, American iconoclast Woody Guthrie, were pioneers and legends in the foundation and evolution of folk and roots music across the years. For Sarah Lee, a sense of pride in that heritage overrides any sense of obligation to it.
For her family, sharing stories through song is a way of life, of being and existing with divine purpose in the world. The art of storytelling is in her blood, it always has been, and it always will be. Guthrie says preserving that tradition and its power to unite and connect us all is more crucial now than ever before as the music landscape continues to grow and evolve.
“It feels like that is getting less and less, doesn’t it?” she confessed during the chat.
“The more I go out and listen to music, I’m realizing, ‘Wow, nobody is sharing’ . . . it’s such a big part of what I do. There’s a getting to know someone, a getting to feel their heart. I think song after song in a performance, if you’re not really connecting to the artist or the artist isn’t connecting to the audience, there’s something lost.”
And while American folk music may not live on the cutting edge of mass popularity in modern times, for Guthrie, the storytelling in which it’s grounded makes way for something profound and timeless. And that is something worth saving.
“There’s a bigger potential to relate and connect. It’s reminding them of their grandparents, their life, their job—those things are super important.”
As for future generations and their charge to keep the tradition alive, Guthrie remains hopeful.
“I think there are people out there still doing it. I think it involves patience from the audience members, our children, and the next generation. Are we going to have the patience for that? I hope so. I’m sure things will come around again, they always do. We need that human connection. It’s vital for our hearts and homes.”
It’s this perspective on the power of music to connect that makes Guthrie a perfect fit for The Creek’s airwaves and voice for our mission to keep shining a spotlight on the modern-day Americana and folk artists keeping that tradition alive.
Guthrie will indeed do her part when she breezes into Macon this week. Tickets are still available for her October 3rd show at Capricorn Sound Studios and can be purchased here.