Sarah Lee Guthrie
&
Johnny Irions

Tuesday April 5th

Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion return to the Iron Door Saloon on Tuesday April 5, at 7:30 pm . This young married duo is becoming one of the most vibrant young acts in today’s Americana music scene. This is their third visit to Groveland and if you haven’t seen them you’re in for a treat. They will become stars in this business and to watch them grow before your eyes while performing is a special treat. They have a new cd called “Exploration” and will be featuring material from this new release. Joining Sarah lLee and Johnny will be Kevn Kinney, from Atlanta an 18 year veteran who’s band “Drivin’ and Cryin’” has released 7 albums. Kevn has 4 solo albums out and will be opening the show. (kevn is correct spelling)

"With a voice like a young Emmy Lou Harris when she sings alone, the couple together sounds a bit like a young June Carter and Johnny Cash. They’ve got
that special something. " --Asheville Citizen

“Authentic.” “Timeless.” “Harmonious.” “Exhilarating.” Any or all of these adjectives could describe the folk-rock sound created by Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion (eye-ree-un). The musical richness and psychological depth of their initial collaboration, the fittingly titled Exploration, is irrefutable proof that the disarming granddaughter of Woody/daughter of Arlo and the prodigious South Carolinian quite naturally bring out the best in each other.

Johnny wrote six of Exploration’s songs, three are co-writes by the duo and two are solely written by Sarah Lee - “Holdin’ Back” and “Mornin’s Over” – which testify to her rich bloodlines, evidencing a contemporary take on the profound simplicity that distinguished the work of her legendary grandfather. The Guthrie legacy appears to be in good hands for decades to come.

Sarah Lee was two years old when she made her singing debut as part of a children’s chorus on Arlo’s 1981 album, Power of Love, but she had little subsequent interest in making music herself, although she was surrounded by it. “I think it was in me,” she says, “but I wasn’t ready for it.” After graduating from high school in 1997, Sarah Lee agreed to tour-manage her father, who was emceeing the Further Festival, on which members of the Grateful Dead were joined by the Black Crowes. She got on so well with the Crowes and Chris Robinson that, when the tour ended, she made what proved to be a life-altering decision: “I knew all these cool rock & roll guys, so I decided to move to L.A.”

Irion came out of the vibrant Carolina indie-rock scene of the early ’90s, first as a member of Queen Sarah Saturday and later with Dillon Fence. He, too, got friendly with Robinson while Dillon Fence was on the road with the Crowes. Robinson convinced Irion to come out to L.A. and join Freight Train, a band he was producing. That was in the fall of ’97, just after Sarah Lee arrived in town. Whether by serendipity or cosmic intervention, the two were on a collision course; they met at an L.A. club and began dating a week later.

Their relationship was musical as well as romantic, although tentatively so at first. Johnny provided melodies for Sarah Lee’s Dylan-influenced poetry and played guitar while she sang. One night in his Santa Monica apartment, he handed Sarah Lee an acoustic and taught her a couple of basic chords. As she strummed, he started playing licks over the top, “so that it sounded kinda good, for like a second,” Sarah Lee recalls. Noticing a growing smile on her face as she plucked the strings, Johnny turned to her and said, “It’s fun, huh?” Johnny’s words echoed in her head for days afterward. “I thought, ‘Gosh, it is fun,’” she remembers. “I’d never known that side of it; music was like a business to me.” It was then that Sarah Lee realized she’d discovered her true calling.

Sarah Lee had just applied for college when word of her musical epiphany reached the family; she got a call from her mother urging her to forget higher education and join her father on tour. So she went out on the road with her dad – “I’m the comic relief in the show,” she says with a laugh – but she always came back to Johnny. A year and a half into their relationship, he proposed. “It totally sideswiped me,” says Sarah Lee, “but I’ve always been a one-person person. He solidified me and believed in me and my art.” They married in 1999 and soon thereafter moved from hectic L.A. to Irion’s birthplace, Columbia, S.C.
Two years later they simultaneously released solo albums on Arlo’s Rising Son label. Since setting out on the road together in 2001, they’ve averaged 180 shows a year. The next step was obvious – it was time to make an album together They convened last February in Ackerson’s Minneapolis studio; inspired and brimming with positive energy, the principals knocked off the record in 12 productive days
At once timely and timeless, the album marks the intertwined coming of age of two vital and distinctive artists. The funny thing is, when you hear them for the first time, you’ll probably feel like they’ve always been there, singing in your ear. Think of Exploration as an introduction to your newest old friends.

For tickets call 209-962-8904 or stop by the Iron Door Saloon at 18761 Main St. in downtown Groveland . If you’d like to reserve a table or guarantee yourself a seat up close you may make a dinner reservation at the same number.