OKEMAH -- Near the end of his Saturday night set headlining the Pastures of Plenty main stage, Arlo Guthrie, son of the namesake of this weeks Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, started a sweet old tune by one of his dad's friends, Leadbelly.

"There've been enough people playing songs by my dad. I'd like to play a song by one of his friends. That's kind of what this festival is about a festival of friends," Guthrie said.

Indeed, the four-day fesival this year glowed with the jubilation of reunited friends and renewed family ties, in the audience and backstage. Some company used to offer a long-distance calling plan called "Friends and Family," and this fourth Woody Guthrie Folk Festival could have flown that same banner.

The unseasonably cool and clear weather, which came through late Thursday night -- just before the festival schedule reached its full intensity outdoors -- aided both attitude and attendance. Friday and Saturday shows at the outdoor stage were crowded, despite organizers nervousness about not having a big name on the festival bill this year.

All that big-name talk is more than a little insulting to Arlo, though, who is hardly a slouch. For a festival honoring his late folksinging father, he's plenty big enough and clearly draws and holds a large crowd.

Austin songwriter Jimmy LaFave mentioned during his Friday night set that he wishes the festival were called the Woody and Arlo Guthrie Folk Festival. Arlo has performed at each Guthrie festival thus far and has remained dedicated to the gathering, which brings together a good chunk of his relatives, too. After his performance at Wednesday night's tribute concert, he hardly had time to talk to fans and media; there were too many relatives to greet. For Arlo, this is a family affair, in every respect.

In fact, backing him up Saturday night was Xavier, the band featuring Arlos son, Abe. (Sara Lee, Arlos daughter who thrilled audiences at last years festival, could not attend this year because she's finishing an album.) Xavier had opened the outdoor stage on Thursday night with a powerful blend of homey harmonies and taut rock, which beefed up Arlos songs considerably.

We've heard Arlo strumming and wheezing through his songs so many years now that we forget how tightly they usually are written and how easily they can rock if given to the right band. The Xavier boys gave Arlo some muscle and breadth through "Coming to Los Angeles," "Chilling of the Evening" (which opened the show as a tribute to the weather, perhaps?), and a springy version of the blues classic "St. James Infirmary."

Preceding Arlo was the Joel Rafael Band, anoher family affair. Playing violin for her dad was Jamaica Rafael, who also sang a creeping and eventually moving version of Woody's "Pastures of Plenty."

Joel himself sang a few Guthrie songs with his inimitible patience and grace, as well as his talking tune about his first visit to Okemah and this festival a few years ago. The song describes his surprise upon being unable to find a parking space outside of Lou's Rocky Road Tavern in Okemah that first night. As a result of the song and the familial friendship kindled between Joel and Lou, there's a sign up outside the bar reserving a space especially for him in perpetuity.

Friday nights main-stage lineup was almost one big clique.

Vance Gilbert, Don Conoscenti and Ellis Paul have been close friends for several years now, and they played the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival this year one after another, in that order.
"We hardly ever get to play together, or even see each other for long stretches of time, being out on the road as much as we are," Paul said Saturday afternoon.

From the stage Friday night, after inviting Conoscenti to join him for a couple of songs (including "3,000 Miles"), Paul said, "I haven't played with Don in about six months. It's a lot like not having sex for six months."

Go ahead, snicker, but these guys really think that much of each other. Gilbert even performed a song he had written years ago for Paul, a semi-bitter broken-hearted lament about Paul's plans to move from their Boston base to Nashville. Its an amazing song, "Taking It All to Nashville," expressing deep love between two (heterosexual) men, and it was the jewel of Gilbert's set.

"I'm not mad at him anymore," Gilbert said from the stage after finishing the song. "He moved back to Boston."

Gilberts performance was amazingly powerful. He dished the sass between songs, joking that "LaFave sounded blacker than I do, like a cross between Bob Dylan and Al Green," but his songs couldn't be sweeter or more delicately constructed. His voice is like butter, and when he was called back for an encore -- not a given occurance at this festival, by any means -- he showcased it by stepping into the audience, sans microphone, and singing a moving myth called "The King of Rome." He is definitely a new member of the festival family.

Oddly enough, though, for all the spirit of comraderie and family, I never heard anyone on stage Saturday night, the festival's climax, wish Woody a happy 89th birthday. That is, after all, the reason this festival occurs in the hottest possible part of the summer; Woody Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912.

If the festival maintains the strength it enjoyed this year (on what organizers thought might be a slow year), he may be reborn again every July in a pasture west of his old hometown.

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Thomas Conner, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8473 or via e-mail at thomas.conner@tulsaworld.com.