It’s all in the family for Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion. They’re a married couple and a folk pop duo, with two daughters and a family tradition of telling stories and making music that goes back generations. Sarah is the daughter of Arlo Guthrie and granddaughter of Woody. Johnny is the son of the writer Thomas Steinbeck and great nephew of John. They know The Grapes of Wrath and the “Dust Bowl Blues” – and they also know how to craft a catchy tune and a memorable lyric.

They’ve recorded five albums together, including the children’s album Go Waggaloo, which earned a Gold Medallion from the Parents’ Choice Foundation, and their latest album, Wassaic Way, which American Songwriter praises for its “remarkable melodic strengths” and “sympathetic and beautifully shaped production.” That production, incidentally, comes from Jeff Tweedy and Patrick Sansone of Wilco fame, and the music shares some of Wilco’s instrumental texture and lyric playfulness and poignancy. “I’m coming home now, but you’re probably gone,” Johnny sings on one song. “You gotta give ’em hell before you’ll get any help,” Sarah sings on another. They’ve played the Newport Folk Festival and Carnegie Hall, and we’re excited to present them at the Freight!

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