Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
Encyclopedia
Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion (born in Columbia, South Carolina
on February 3, 1969) are a musical duo.
Guthrie and Irion were married on October 16, 1999 and began performing together as an acoustic duo in the fall of 2000. Their music combined Irion's love of pop music
, rock
and blues
with Guthrie's roots of folk
and country
.
Guthrie is the youngest daughter of folksinger Arlo Guthrie
and the granddaughter of Woody Guthrie
. As a child she was involved in theater and dance. Her interest in music was sparked when she worked as her father's road manager on the 1997 Further Festival tour and saw other members of the tour group having fun at late-night jam sessions. She picked up an acoustic guitar
and started playing as a way to join in on the fun. "I always wrote poems, so it wasn't that far off for me to turn that into songs."
Irion originates from a family of artists. His grandmother, Rubilee Knight is a classical violinist. His late grandfather, Fred Knight sang tenor
in numerous venues, and there were some fiddlers on his father’s side of the family from Paris, TN. His aunt is married to author Thomas Steinbeck
, the son of iconic author John Steinbeck
. Ironically, Woody and John did correspond at points, and in time the two families have been brought together through the marriage of Sarah Lee and Johnny.
Irion's music career began with his junior high bandmates Zeke Hutchins (married to Tift Merritt
) and guitarist Ryan Pickett (front of house engineer, My Morning Jacket
). They established the band Queen Sarah Saturday. They started playing in the triangle area centered around Chapel Hill, NC and were a part of a vibrant indie rock
scene featuring other bands such as Archers of Loaf
, The Connells
, Superchunk
, Dillon Fence
, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers
. Queen Sarah Saturday signed with Sony Music Entertainment
affiliate-label Thirsty Ear Recordings in 1994, and shared the stage with Charleston's UK, Redd Kross
, The Ramones, and toured extensively throughout the South. They released their debut album, Weave, in 1994, and an EP entitled June German, in 1995. Queen Sarah Saturday disbanded in 1996.
In the late '90s, Dillion Fence's lead singer Greg Humphreys approached Irion about joining his band for the Black Crowes’s Europe
an "Amorica
" Tour, which Irion joined and sang and played guitar
in. The band performed at venues such as Royal Albert Hall
and Le Zenith in Paris
. Upon returning back to North Carolina
, Irion was approached by Chris Robinson to play guitar in a band he was producing in Los Angeles
, called Freight Train. After months of recording and playing shows in LA, drummer Mike Stinson
(also a songwriter for Dwight Yoakam
) and Irion left the band and continued to play around LA from 1997 - 2000 under several different band names. Around this time, Irion met Mike Brenner
, and co-wrote "Wicked Son," which appeared on Slo Mo's first record produced by Tom Rothrock
. Irion co-wrote the Roman Carter single, "Just A Little Too Fast," shot super 8 footage and appeared in the music video. Irion has appeared in various films and documentaries including Ghost World
, Dennis Leary's The Job
, and Sarah Lee and Johnny put music to the song "Flowers," which appeared in a documentary on Peter La Farge
.
During this 3 years period in LA, Irion met Sarah Lee Guthrie and they started singing harmonies at late-night jams and began a burgeoning career. Upon leaving LA in 2000, Irion and Guthrie moved back to the East Coast, to Columbia, SC. They each released a solo record: Unity Lodge and Sarah Lee Guthrie. The duo toured together across the US, and with independent record label
Yep Roc releasing Unity Lodge in 2001, the duo was asked to play the Blue Highways Festival. The duo has now toured Europe
six times. Following the release of the two solo albums, and four years on the road, their first daughter Olivia was born.
In 2004, Sarah Lee and Johnny approached Gary Louris
(of The Jayhawks) about producing their debut full-length album. They subsequently traveled to Minneapolis to record the album at Flowers studio. Exploration, engineered by Ed Ackerson, was released by New West Records
in 2005. The duo performed several shows with The Jayhawks, toured with their good friend Kevin Kenny (of Drivin N Cryin
fame), and appeared at Strawberry Music Festival.
After failed relations with New West, the duo decided to start their own record company, Route 8 Records, which in turn released Irion's solo record, Ex Tempore (2007). The album received critical acclaim from many press outlets including Uncut
("...Its soft, tremulous roll owes as much to Neil Young
's After the Goldrush as it does the early-'70s cheese cloth'n'denim of James Taylor
's Sweet Baby James
..."), MOJO magazine ("...An intriguing, appealing mix of Americana
influences and tempos, excellently played and sung in a high, sometimes Neil Youngesque voice..."), and music critic Don McLeese praised the album by saying, "Though Johnny Irion's music has been closely tied to that of his wife, Sarah Lee Guthrie, on Ex Tempore he makes a bold step toward asserting his own artistic identity. The results are often surprising, occasionally stunning." To this day, the duo still performs songs from the album in their live sets.
While touring as a duo shortly after Ex Tempore was released, Sarah Lee and Johnny filmed a show at Tales from the Tavern in Santa Barbara, which led to a live HD DVD
, called Folksong. Jason Hill (songwriter for Louis IX
, New York Dolls
, The Killers) mixed Folksong. They continued to tour with their daughter Olivia on the road with them, and began to stockpile original children's songs. Sarah Lee Guthrie was approached by John Smith, from Smithsonian Folkways
, to make a children's record in their home studio. In 2009, the children's album Go Waggaloo was released. On the release, Sarah Lee is joined by Irion and their two daughters, as well as numerous friends and family members including Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger
and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
. The album includes three songs featuring lyrics by Woody Guthrie never before put to music and eight songs written by Sarah Lee and family.
In January 2011, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion were nominated for the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Children's Music
category for their song "Don't Fit In My Daddy's Shoes?", and they also won the Dr. Toy Award. Since the release of Go Waggalo, they have performed with their two daughters under the monarch of Sarah Lee Guthrie and Family, at such venues as Royce Hall
and The Getty Center. The duo sometimes does "family" and "grown-up shows" at music festivals around the country.
In 2010, while backstage at Gary Louris's show at Town Hall during his tour supporting Vagabonds, Irion met Andy Cabic
(lead singer-songwriter for the indie-folk band Vetiver
). Irion soon after asked Cabic to co-produce their latest album, Bright Examples, with Thom Monahan
(Devendra Banhart
, Vetiver). The album was recorded at Dreamland Studios in Woodstock, NY. Sarah Lee and Johnny signed a record deal with Ninth Street Opus
, and they released Bright Examples on February 22, 2011. Bright Examples includes 12 original songs showcasing an entirely new electric sound for Sarah Lee and Johnny. Special guests include Gary Louris and Mark Olson
of The Jayhawks (background vocals), Vetiver's drummer Otto Houser, singer-songwriter/guitarist Neal Casal
(guitar, album photography
, he is the photographer featured in the book Ryan Adams
: A View of Other Windows), Kevin Barker and Charlie Rose (pedal steel, flat picking guitars), and Rad Lorkovic (piano
).
Sarah Lee and Johnny made their national TV debut in March 2010 when they appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly
. Their CD release party at Hotel Café
in Los Angeles, CA was filmed and several songs were broadcasted on Last Call with Carson Daly. Also in March 2011, the duo took their band to Austin, TX to perform at SXSW. In June 2011, Sarah Lee and Johnny and the band appeared at Wilco
's Solid Sound Festival at MassMoCa in North Adams, MA. The duo sat in with Wilco on the song, "California Stars". Currently, the duo is working on a covers record with the Rondo Brothers.
Guthrie and Irion have appeared at the Newport Folk Festival
, The Philadelphia Folk Festival
, Solid Sound, Song School and Folks Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival
, Bumbershoot
, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
festival, MerleFest
, This Land is Your Land
(featuring Sheryl Crow
and Pete Seeger), Clearwater Festival
, Lake Eden Arts Festival
, as well as theatres nationwide including Carnegie Hall
and The Getty, listening rooms, performing arts centers, and schools. When not performing their own shows they tour nationally with Arlo Guthrie, opening the show, then joining him onstage in their family concert series. They recently accompanied Arlo at Carnegie Hall with Pete Seeger and The Dillards
.[5] Sarah Lee also joined Arlo Guthrie in the 2010 Macy's Day Parade, and they sang "This Land Is Your Land
."
Sarah Lee and Johnny have toured with Autumn Defense, Vetiver, Ray LaMontagne
, Martin Sexton
, Jayhawks, John Prine
, and Guy Clark
; and they have shared the stage with Willie Nelson
, Sheryl Crow, Pete Seeger
, Steve Earle
, Wilco, Neil Young, Joan Baez
, Gillian Welch
& David Rawlings
, and Chris Robinson.
Sarah Lee performed at the World Equestrian Games
in 2010, singing her grandfathers song, “This Land Is Your Land” and Hoyt Axton
’s “Young Girls Mind.” Her performance was televised with a live broadcast.
For the 9th year in a row, Johnny Irion joins the band Chatham County Line
for an annual Christmas
show for several concerts in the Southeastern United States
. It is a show that Chatham County Line plays electric instrument
s. In 2012, Sarah Lee and Johnny will perform on the Cayamo Cruise.
Columbia, South Carolina
Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...
on February 3, 1969) are a musical duo.
Guthrie and Irion were married on October 16, 1999 and began performing together as an acoustic duo in the fall of 2000. Their music combined Irion's love of pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
with Guthrie's roots of folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and country
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
.
Guthrie is the youngest daughter of folksinger Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
and the granddaughter of Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
. As a child she was involved in theater and dance. Her interest in music was sparked when she worked as her father's road manager on the 1997 Further Festival tour and saw other members of the tour group having fun at late-night jam sessions. She picked up an acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
and started playing as a way to join in on the fun. "I always wrote poems, so it wasn't that far off for me to turn that into songs."
"My dad was absolutely thrilled, of course, and would teach me stuff every day when we were on the road together. That was a really cool way to get to know my dad, because I'd never known him that way. And that's another thing that made it easy: my dad was so supportive."
Irion originates from a family of artists. His grandmother, Rubilee Knight is a classical violinist. His late grandfather, Fred Knight sang tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
in numerous venues, and there were some fiddlers on his father’s side of the family from Paris, TN. His aunt is married to author Thomas Steinbeck
Thomas Steinbeck
Thomas Myles Steinbeck is a writer and the eldest son of Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck. Steinbeck has sold numerous screenplays over the life of his career. In 2002, Ballantine Publishing Group, a division of Random House published his first book of short stories entitled, "Down To a Soundless Sea"...
, the son of iconic author John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
. Ironically, Woody and John did correspond at points, and in time the two families have been brought together through the marriage of Sarah Lee and Johnny.
Irion's music career began with his junior high bandmates Zeke Hutchins (married to Tift Merritt
Tift Merritt
Catherine Tift Merritt is an American singer-songwriter, musician and North Carolina native. With her longtime band, she has built what has been called a "unique" and critically acclaimed body of work of "sonic short stories and poignant performances." She has been compared to songwriters like...
) and guitarist Ryan Pickett (front of house engineer, My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky.The band consists of Jim James , Tom 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship , Patrick Hallahan , Carl Broemel , and Bo Koster .-History:My Morning Jacket was...
). They established the band Queen Sarah Saturday. They started playing in the triangle area centered around Chapel Hill, NC and were a part of a vibrant indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
scene featuring other bands such as Archers of Loaf
Archers of Loaf
Archers of Loaf is an American indie-rock band originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, formed in 1990. The group toured extensively and released a total of four studio albums, a collection album, numerous singles and EPs, and a live album which was released after the band broke up in...
, The Connells
The Connells
The Connells are an American band from Raleigh, North Carolina. They play a guitar-oriented, melodic, power pop style of rock music with introspective lyrics that reflect the American South. Though mostly dormant, the band continues to play to this day...
, Superchunk
Superchunk
Superchunk is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, consisting of singer/guitarist Mac McCaughan, guitarist Jim Wilbur, bassist Laura Ballance, and drummer Jon Wurster. Formed in 1989, they were one of the bands that helped define the Chapel Hill music scene of the 1990s...
, Dillon Fence
Dillon Fence
Dillon Fence was an American rock band in the mid 1980s to 1995. They have been described as "a key band in the tres chic Chapel Hill, North Carolina, scene"....
, and the Squirrel Nut Zippers
Squirrel Nut Zippers
The Squirrel Nut Zippers are a band formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina by James "Jimbo" Mathus , Katharine Whalen , Chris Phillips on drums, Don Raleigh on bass and sideman Ken Mosher....
. Queen Sarah Saturday signed with Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
affiliate-label Thirsty Ear Recordings in 1994, and shared the stage with Charleston's UK, Redd Kross
Redd Kross
Redd Kross, a rock band from Hawthorne, California had their roots in 1978 in a band called The Tourists begun by Jeff and Steve McDonald while the brothers were still in middle school...
, The Ramones, and toured extensively throughout the South. They released their debut album, Weave, in 1994, and an EP entitled June German, in 1995. Queen Sarah Saturday disbanded in 1996.
In the late '90s, Dillion Fence's lead singer Greg Humphreys approached Irion about joining his band for the Black Crowes’s Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an "Amorica
Amorica
Amorica is the third album by The Black Crowes. It was released in late 1994 on American Recordings and re-issued in the US and UK in 1998 with two bonus tracks. The album cover's depiction of pubic hair, from a 1976 United States Bicentennial issue of Hustler magazine, caused controversy...
" Tour, which Irion joined and sang and played guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
in. The band performed at venues such as Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
and Le Zenith in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Upon returning back to North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, Irion was approached by Chris Robinson to play guitar in a band he was producing in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, called Freight Train. After months of recording and playing shows in LA, drummer Mike Stinson
Mike Stinson
-Career:A native of Virginia, Mike Stinson moved to Los Angeles in 1991. Inspired by the country rock of Gram Parsons, as well as more traditional country artists such as Johnny Cash and George Jones, he began to write songs and eventually formed his own band....
(also a songwriter for Dwight Yoakam
Dwight Yoakam
Dwight David Yoakam is an American singer-songwriter, actor and film director, most famous for his pioneering country music...
) and Irion left the band and continued to play around LA from 1997 - 2000 under several different band names. Around this time, Irion met Mike Brenner
Mike Brenner
Philadelphia musician Mike "Slo-Mo" Brenner is the veteran of many bands and has recorded tracks on over 100 CDs of both independent and major label artists....
, and co-wrote "Wicked Son," which appeared on Slo Mo's first record produced by Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock
Tom Rothrock is an international record producer, composer and musician. Tom Rothrock has produced albums with James Blunt, Badly Drawn Boy, R. L. Burnside, Yonder Mountain String Band, Athlete, Sloan and Roman Carter....
. Irion co-wrote the Roman Carter single, "Just A Little Too Fast," shot super 8 footage and appeared in the music video. Irion has appeared in various films and documentaries including Ghost World
Ghost World
Ghost World is a comic book written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes. It was originally serialized in issues #11 through #18 of Clowes's comic book series Eightball, and was first published in book form in 1997 by Fantagraphics Books...
, Dennis Leary's The Job
The Job (2009 film)
The Job is an independent darkly comic drama written and directed by Shem Bitterman based on his 1998 play. The world premiere of The Job was at the San Diego Film Festival on September 26, 2009.-Plot:...
, and Sarah Lee and Johnny put music to the song "Flowers," which appeared in a documentary on Peter La Farge
Peter La Farge
Peter La Farge was a New York-based folksinger and songwriter of the 1950s and 1960s...
.
During this 3 years period in LA, Irion met Sarah Lee Guthrie and they started singing harmonies at late-night jams and began a burgeoning career. Upon leaving LA in 2000, Irion and Guthrie moved back to the East Coast, to Columbia, SC. They each released a solo record: Unity Lodge and Sarah Lee Guthrie. The duo toured together across the US, and with independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Yep Roc releasing Unity Lodge in 2001, the duo was asked to play the Blue Highways Festival. The duo has now toured Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
six times. Following the release of the two solo albums, and four years on the road, their first daughter Olivia was born.
In 2004, Sarah Lee and Johnny approached Gary Louris
Gary Louris
Gary Louris is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter of alternative country and pop music. He was a founding member of the Minneapolis-based band The Jayhawks, and their principal songwriter and vocalist after the departure of Mark Olson; he is often credited with the band's subsequent move from...
(of The Jayhawks) about producing their debut full-length album. They subsequently traveled to Minneapolis to record the album at Flowers studio. Exploration, engineered by Ed Ackerson, was released by New West Records
New West Records
New West Records is a record label based in Los Angeles, California, Austin, Texas, and Athens, Georgia. It was established in 1998, and has been home to several indie rock and alternative country bands as well as representing the PBS show Austin City Limits...
in 2005. The duo performed several shows with The Jayhawks, toured with their good friend Kevin Kenny (of Drivin N Cryin
Drivin N Cryin
Drivin' 'N' Cryin is an American Hard rock/Southern rock band from Atlanta, GA.-History:The band was formed in 1985 in Atlanta. Kevn Kinney hooked up with Tim Nielsen, who was in a popular band called the Nightporters with drummer Paul Lenz at the time...
fame), and appeared at Strawberry Music Festival.
After failed relations with New West, the duo decided to start their own record company, Route 8 Records, which in turn released Irion's solo record, Ex Tempore (2007). The album received critical acclaim from many press outlets including Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
("...Its soft, tremulous roll owes as much to Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's After the Goldrush as it does the early-'70s cheese cloth'n'denim of James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
's Sweet Baby James
Sweet Baby James
Sweet Baby James is singer-songwriter James Taylor's second album, and his first release on Warner Bros. Records. Released in February 1970, it showcased Taylor's talents and showed the direction he would take in the early 1970s with the expansion of his career. The album featured one of Taylor's...
..."), MOJO magazine ("...An intriguing, appealing mix of Americana
Americana (music)
Americana is an amalgam of roots musics formed by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and other external influential styles...
influences and tempos, excellently played and sung in a high, sometimes Neil Youngesque voice..."), and music critic Don McLeese praised the album by saying, "Though Johnny Irion's music has been closely tied to that of his wife, Sarah Lee Guthrie, on Ex Tempore he makes a bold step toward asserting his own artistic identity. The results are often surprising, occasionally stunning." To this day, the duo still performs songs from the album in their live sets.
While touring as a duo shortly after Ex Tempore was released, Sarah Lee and Johnny filmed a show at Tales from the Tavern in Santa Barbara, which led to a live HD DVD
HD DVD
HD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
, called Folksong. Jason Hill (songwriter for Louis IX
Louis IX
Louis IX may refer to:* Louis IX of France .* Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria "the Rich" * Louis IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt ....
, New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
, The Killers) mixed Folksong. They continued to tour with their daughter Olivia on the road with them, and began to stockpile original children's songs. Sarah Lee Guthrie was approached by John Smith, from Smithsonian Folkways
Smithsonian Folkways
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways...
, to make a children's record in their home studio. In 2009, the children's album Go Waggaloo was released. On the release, Sarah Lee is joined by Irion and their two daughters, as well as numerous friends and family members including Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger
Tao Rodríguez-Seeger
Tao Rodríguez-Seeger is an American contemporary folk musician. He plays banjo, guitar, harmonica, and sings in Spanish and in English. He is known as a founder of The Mammals and is the grandson of folk musician Pete Seeger....
. The album includes three songs featuring lyrics by Woody Guthrie never before put to music and eight songs written by Sarah Lee and family.
In January 2011, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion were nominated for the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in the Children's Music
Children's music
Children's music is used here to refer to music composed and performed for children by adults. In European influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment...
category for their song "Don't Fit In My Daddy's Shoes?", and they also won the Dr. Toy Award. Since the release of Go Waggalo, they have performed with their two daughters under the monarch of Sarah Lee Guthrie and Family, at such venues as Royce Hall
Royce Hall
Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles . Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison in the Italian Romanesque Revival style and completed in 1929, it is one of the four original buildings on UCLA's Westwood campus and has come to be the...
and The Getty Center. The duo sometimes does "family" and "grown-up shows" at music festivals around the country.
In 2010, while backstage at Gary Louris's show at Town Hall during his tour supporting Vagabonds, Irion met Andy Cabic
Andy Cabic
Andy Cabic is a folk rock singer-songwriter, and lead member of the band Vetiver.He was born in Virginia and attended school at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where he played in a band called The Raymond Brake...
(lead singer-songwriter for the indie-folk band Vetiver
Vetiver
Chrysopogon zizanioides, commonly known as vetiver , is a perennial grass of the Poaceae family, native to India. In western and northern India, it is popularly known as khus. Vetiver can grow up to 1.5 metres high and form clumps as wide. The stems are tall and the leaves are long, thin, and...
). Irion soon after asked Cabic to co-produce their latest album, Bright Examples, with Thom Monahan
Thom Monahan
Thom Monahan is a producer/engineer and musician who is best known for his work with the bands Pernice Brothers and Vetiver. He has also produced albums by Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks, and Lavender Diamond....
(Devendra Banhart
Devendra Banhart
Devendra Obi Banhart is a singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and was raised by his mother in Venezuela, until he moved to California as a teenager. He began to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1998, but dropped out to perform music in Europe, San...
, Vetiver). The album was recorded at Dreamland Studios in Woodstock, NY. Sarah Lee and Johnny signed a record deal with Ninth Street Opus
Ninth Street Opus
Ninth Street Opus is an independent record label in Berkeley, CA. Founded in 2008 by producer Wayne Skeen, Opus is a genre-agnostic label, with recordings that focus on artists with strong live musical performances. Their catalog’s recordings have dipped into folk, country, rock, jazz and...
, and they released Bright Examples on February 22, 2011. Bright Examples includes 12 original songs showcasing an entirely new electric sound for Sarah Lee and Johnny. Special guests include Gary Louris and Mark Olson
Mark Olson (musician)
Mark Olson is an American musician. He is one of the founding members of acclaimed alternative country bands The Jayhawks and The Original Harmony Ridge Creekdippers and a respected singer/songwriter in his own right....
of The Jayhawks (background vocals), Vetiver's drummer Otto Houser, singer-songwriter/guitarist Neal Casal
Neal Casal
Neal Casal is an American songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and photographer who has maintained an acclaimed solo career as well as playing guitar for The Cardinals.-1990 - 1999:...
(guitar, album photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, he is the photographer featured in the book Ryan Adams
Ryan Adams
David Ryan Adams is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the band and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000...
: A View of Other Windows), Kevin Barker and Charlie Rose (pedal steel, flat picking guitars), and Rad Lorkovic (piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
).
Sarah Lee and Johnny made their national TV debut in March 2010 when they appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
. Their CD release party at Hotel Café
Hotel Café
The Hotel Café is a live music venue located off an alley on the Cahuenga Boulevard strip in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that has become known for helping to establish the careers of new singer-songwriters in the 2000s...
in Los Angeles, CA was filmed and several songs were broadcasted on Last Call with Carson Daly. Also in March 2011, the duo took their band to Austin, TX to perform at SXSW. In June 2011, Sarah Lee and Johnny and the band appeared at Wilco
Wilco
Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...
's Solid Sound Festival at MassMoCa in North Adams, MA. The duo sat in with Wilco on the song, "California Stars". Currently, the duo is working on a covers record with the Rondo Brothers.
Guthrie and Irion have appeared at the Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
, The Philadelphia Folk Festival
Philadelphia Folk Festival
The Philadelphia Folk Festival is an annual folk music festival near Schwenksville, Pennsylvania in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Begun in 1962, the four-day festival is sponsored by the non-profit Philadelphia Folksong Society. The event hosts contemporary and traditional artists in genres...
, Solid Sound, Song School and Folks Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival
Winnipeg Folk Festival
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is a summer folk music festival held in Birds Hill Provincial Park, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It features a variety of folk artists from all around the world, as well as a number of local folk performers....
, Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot
Bumbershoot is an annual international music and arts festival held in Seattle, Washington. One of North America's largest such festivals, it takes place every Labor Day weekend at the 74-acre Seattle Center, which was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Seattle Center includes indoor theaters,...
, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, or HSB for short is an annual free music festival held the first weekend of October in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. From its outset, the festival has been subsidized by San Francisco venture capitalist Warren Hellman. The first festival was held in 2001, originally...
festival, MerleFest
MerleFest
MerleFest is an annual "traditional plus" music festival held in Wilkesboro, North Carolina on the campus of Wilkes Community College . The festival, which is held the last weekend in April, is hosted by Grammy Award winner Doc Watson and is named in memory and honor of his son, Eddy Merle Watson,...
, This Land is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
(featuring Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
and Pete Seeger), Clearwater Festival
Clearwater Festival
The Clearwater Festival is a music and environmental summer festival and America’s oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. This unique event has hosted over 15,000 people on a weekend in June for more than three decades...
, Lake Eden Arts Festival
Lake Eden Arts Festival
Lake Eden Arts Festival is a non-profit organization established to build community and enrich lives through the arts, locally and globally, through festivals, events, mentoring, and educational programs....
, as well as theatres nationwide including Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and The Getty, listening rooms, performing arts centers, and schools. When not performing their own shows they tour nationally with Arlo Guthrie, opening the show, then joining him onstage in their family concert series. They recently accompanied Arlo at Carnegie Hall with Pete Seeger and The Dillards
The Dillards
The Dillards are an American bluegrass band from Salem, Missouri, consisting of Douglas Flint "Doug" Dillard The Dillards are an American bluegrass band from Salem, Missouri, consisting of Douglas Flint "Doug" Dillard The Dillards are an American bluegrass band from Salem, Missouri, consisting of...
.[5] Sarah Lee also joined Arlo Guthrie in the 2010 Macy's Day Parade, and they sang "This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
."
Sarah Lee and Johnny have toured with Autumn Defense, Vetiver, Ray LaMontagne
Ray LaMontagne
Raymond "Ray" Charles Jack LaMontagne is a Grammy-award winning American singer-songwriter. LaMontagne has released four studio albums, Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black, Gossip in the Grain and God Willin' & the Creek Don't Rise. He was born in New Hampshire and was inspired to create music after...
, Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton is an American singer-songwriter and producer originally from Syracuse, New York.- Early life :Sexton grew up the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of 14 and later played in local...
, Jayhawks, John Prine
John Prine
John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
, and Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
; and they have shared the stage with Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Sheryl Crow, Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Steve Earle
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain "Steve" Earle is an American singer-songwriter known for his rock and Texas Country as well as his political views. He is also a producer, author, a political activist, and an actor, and has written and directed a play....
, Wilco, Neil Young, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch
Gillian Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, Bluegrass, and Americana, is described by The New Yorker as "at once innovative and obliquely...
& David Rawlings
David Rawlings
David Todd Rawlings is a professional guitarist and singer. He is best known as the longtime musical partner of bluegrass singer-songwriter Gillian Welch.David attended the Berklee College of Music and studied with guitar professor Lauren Passarelli....
, and Chris Robinson.
Sarah Lee performed at the World Equestrian Games
World Equestrian Games
The FEI World Equestrian Games are the major international championships for equestrianism, and administered by the Fédération Equestre Internationale . The games have been held every four years, halfway between sets of consecutive Summer Olympic Games, since 1990...
in 2010, singing her grandfathers song, “This Land Is Your Land” and Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Axton
Hoyt Wayne Axton was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well...
’s “Young Girls Mind.” Her performance was televised with a live broadcast.
For the 9th year in a row, Johnny Irion joins the band Chatham County Line
Chatham County Line
The members met in 1996 when lead singer/songwriter Dave Wilson was playing for "Stillhouse". Wilson was living in the Blue House, an infamous Raleigh crash pad and romper room for the areas hottest young musicians. The other members are banjo picker Chandler Holt, upright bassist Greg Readling,...
for an annual Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
show for several concerts in the Southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
. It is a show that Chatham County Line plays electric instrument
Electric instrument
An electric musical instrument is one in which the use of electric devices determines or affects the sound produced by an instrument. It is also known as an amplified musical instrument due to the common utilization of an electronic instrument amplifier to project the intended sound as determined...
s. In 2012, Sarah Lee and Johnny will perform on the Cayamo Cruise.
Discography
| Year | Title | Artist | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Bright Examples (full length) | Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion | Ninth Street Opus Ninth Street Opus Ninth Street Opus is an independent record label in Berkeley, CA. Founded in 2008 by producer Wayne Skeen, Opus is a genre-agnostic label, with recordings that focus on artists with strong live musical performances. Their catalog’s recordings have dipped into folk, country, rock, jazz and... |
| 2010 | Bright Examples EP | Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion | Ninth Street Opus |
| 2009 | Go Waggaloo | Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family | Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways... |
| 2009 | Folksong [DVD and CD] | Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion | Rte. 8 |
| 2007 | Ex Tempore | Johnny Irion | Rte.8/RCAM |
| 2005 | Exploration | Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion | Rte. 8 |
| 2004 | Entirely Live [EP] | Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion | Rte. 8 |
| 2002 | Sarah Lee Guthrie | Sarah Lee Guthrie | Rising Son Records Rising Son Records Rising Son Records was founded in 1983 by Arlo Guthrie and has been located in the Old Trinity Church in Housatonic, Massachusetts since 1992. The church was home to Alice and Ray Brock, whose Thanksgiving Day dinners were the inspiration for Guthrie's 1967 song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree"... |
| 2001 | Unity Lodge | Johnny Irion | Yep Roc Records |
| 1994 | Weave | Johnny Irion / Queen Sarah Saturday | Thirsty Ear |
External links
- Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion website
- Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion on MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Biography on Country Music Television (CMT)