02/29 8:00 PM & 10PM - $25.00

Arlen Roth and the Cordobas

Within the international guitar community, Arlen Roth’s name is uttered in the hushed, reverent tones reserved for the true greats — six-string legends like Jeff Beck, Ry Cooder and the late Danny Gatton. Even the renowned acoustic fingerpicker Paul Simon once took lessons from Roth to sharpen his skills on the instrument. No wonder Vintage Guitar magazine ranked him as one of the Top 100 Influential Guitarists of the Century. But outside of that clued-in sector of the populace, Roth has remained under the radar throughout the majority of his 35-year career.

The New York native’s new Toolin’ Around Woodstock — Featuring Levon Helm, on Roth’s own Aquinnah label, just may bring him the wider recognition he has long deserved. Rather than an all-star super-session like its celebrated antecedent, 1993’s Toolin’ Around, which featured appearances by Gatton, Duane Eddy, Albert Lee and other renowned players, the new work focuses on a close-knit unit anchored by the great drummer and vocalist whose name is fittingly referenced in the album title. Bassist and Roth regular Paul Ossola fills out the rhythm section, with Matt Rae on rhythm guitar and Brian Mitchell on keyboards. Slide wizard Sonny Landreth and former Commander Cody mainstay Bill Kirchen guest on two tracks apiece. The album also has a generational aspect, as Arlen’s daughter Lexie and Levon’s daughter Amy add their voices to several tracks. Playing in the moment, Roth and his campadres recapture the collegial spirit that distinguished the landmark albums of Woodstock’s golden age.

This crew is capable of tearing through any tune that’s put in front of them, which is precisely what they do on these 14 tracks, drawn from the songbooks of Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Buck Owens and Carl Perkins, along with the one-of-a-kind instrumental “Sleepwalk,” the soul classic “Just One Look,” the standard “Unchained Melody” and a pair of Roth originals.

“Working with Levon reminded me of why I started playing music,” Roth says of his friend, now fully recovered from the throat cancer that had threatened to rob him of his singular voice. “When you get in the studio with Levon, you realize what a world-class musician he is. He seemed to care very deeply about the tracks we were cutting, and it was extremely gratifying to see him so into it.” Here, as on his own terrific new album, Dirt Farmer, Levon is as feisty as ever.

It’s always gotta be fresh for me,” Roth says of his approach to recording. “We would go into the studio deliberately under-prepared; I like to work that way because it keeps things spontaneous, and that’s when magic happens.” Roth and Landreth’s withering interplay on “Tumblin,” improvised on the spot, is jaw-dropping proof of what can happen when gifted and inspired players stand toe to toe and let ’er rip.

The sessions took place at Helm’s Woodstock studio, and just about everything was cut live off the floor, including Roth’s stunning leads on Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” and “Unchained Melody”; the latter is a tribute to Gatton, who’d often talked with Roth about their cutting it together. Both performances stand as captivating examples of what might best be described as the guitarist’s capacity for wordless eloquence. Roth’s dazzling yet earthy aesthetic is defined not merely by rarefied virtuosity but rather by virtuosity in the service of expressing humanity, which is present in every note he plays. “Singing through the guitar” is how he puts it, simply but accurately.

Roth’s relatively low profile is the result of the choices he’s made in his music and in his life. The six-string whiz kid generated a buzz in New York City and Woodstock during the early ’70s, making his mark at the tender age of 16 fronting Steel, a powerhouse band in the manner of Leslie West’s Mountain. By the time he hit 20, Arlen had become an in-demand hired gun, working primarily with singer-songwriters like John Prine, Eric Andersen, Phoebe Snow, Janis Ian and Loudon Wainwright III, but from the very beginning he was extremely discriminating in responding to the invitations he was constantly being offered. In ’77, for example, he turned down a regular gig playing with Billy Joel behind his breakthrough album The Stranger, opting instead for what he viewed as a more challenging role as the lead guitarist in Art Garfunkel’s touring band.

After cementing his status among his fellow musicians, and authoring the first two of numerous books on the guitar, Roth began to focus on his own music. His debut album, Guitarist (Rounder, 1978), put him on the fast track as a solo artist, earning Best Instrumental Album honors at Montreux, while the 1980 follow-up, Hot Pickups (also on Rounder), drew raves from critics and guitar enthusiasts, while rising to #2 on the U.K. charts.

By the time Hot Pickups came out, Arlen and his wife Deborah, a skillful artist and business partner, had launched the groundbreaking instructional series Hot Licks, on which the guitarist and his handpicked guests, among them John Entwistle, Andy Summers, Mick Taylor, Buddy Guy, Robin Trower, George Benson and Joe Pass, revealed the nuances of their styles for an eager audience of aspiring players. “The idea behind Hot Licks was a simple one,” Roth explains. It was all about a self-taught guitarist helping others to teach themselves.” In many instances, the Hot Licks catalog contains the only video recordings ever performed by master musicians. The company has shipped over 2 million videos worldwide, while producing an extensive library of books and guitar-related materials.

As Hot Licks took off, Roth threw himself into it with the same passion he’d brought to playing music, in effect putting his solo career on the back burner. He wouldn’t release another recording under his own name until the 1984 EP Paint Job, and Lonely Street, released a year later, would be his last longplayer until ’93’s Toolin’ Around. While Hot Licks and the series of music books he authored took him out of the public eye, there was a big upside for Arlen in that he was able to spend more time at home with his wife and their young daughters Gillian and Lexie.

Among the gigs Roth did accept were playing with Simon & Garfunkel on their 1983 reunion tour, going on the road with Duane Eddy and creating the bulk of the guitar parts for the 1985 film Crossroads. The latter project might have raised his profile considerably, but inexplicably he wasn’t given credit for what amounted to nine months of intensive work, much of it on location in Mississippi.

Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Roth concentrated on teaching via Hot Licks and guitar clinics while cherry-picking playing opportunities, but his first and foremost focus was his family. He took great pride in the natural ability of Gillian, whose precociousness on the guitar led to a slot for the 14-year-old on a Nickelodeon series about a teenage female band. The family made plans to relocate to Florida, where the series would be produced. And then, two days after Gillian recorded the show’s theme song, in the midst of what Arlen describes as the family’s peak of happiness, the world stopped in its tracks, when a car accident took the lives of both Deborah and Gillian. In the weeks and months following the horrible event, he recalls, “There were no colors anymore. I couldn’t tell whether the sky was blue or gray. For a long time, it felt like time stood still.”

Arlen and Lexie’s shared experience of immeasurable loss and inconsolable grief brought them even closer, and from that fateful day onward, his daughter has been his raison d’etre. He described Lexie as “the bravest and sweetest person I’ve ever known,” in the notes for his 2002 album Drive It Home, a heart-wrenching and beautiful acoustic tribute to Gillian and Deborah. The bond between father and daughter was musically manifested in 2005, when Lexie, then 18, recorded her first album, One Long Blink, co-produced with her father, and containing her plainspoken insights on the tragedy and its aftermath. “That album was a great healing experience for both of us,” says Roth, “and it’s also a continuum of what I had with Gillian, which makes it very joyful as well.”

The experiences of making Drive It Home, the 2005 instrumental album Landscape and Lexie’s LP proved to be therapeutic; falling in love and remarrying completed Roth’s healing process. “Maria showed me that life can go on, and I never thought that would happen again,” he admits.

This series of positive experiences enabled Roth to throw himself into Toolin’ Around Woodstock. “I’d worked through my serious, reflective side on the acoustic album, and I was ready to have some fun,” he says. Consequently, an exhilarating sense of release permeates the performances on the new album, as Roth reclaims his life and embraces his considerable musical legacy. “For the first time in my solo career, I’ve been able to focus just on the music,” he says of the experience of making the record. “The best way to describe what I’m feeling now is that time is finally moving forward again.”