GREAT BARRINGTON â After a year-and-a-half without in-person music, The Guthrie Center reopens Thursday with the Ramblin Hoot and Annie s (Guthrie) Birthday!, hosted by Rick Robbins.
Robbins, who is stepping in for the previously announced concert by Ramblin Jack Elliott, is a longtime friend of Arlo Guthrie. Together, Guthrie, 18, and Robbins, 19, illegally dumped trash on the side of the road in Stockbridge on Thanksgiving Day 1965.
They were arrested and charged the next day, and later, each paid a $25 fine after pleading guilty to illegally disposing of rubbish. The incident inspired the now-iconic Guthrie protest ballad, Alice s Restaurant Massacree, and the subsequent film.