Arlo Guthrie has called for donations to save the Hudson River sloop Clearwater, which was launched 50 years ago by the late folk icon Pete Seeger, “because I love that old guy Pete.” With the coronavirus pandemic halting the Clearwater’s educational sails and threatening its solvency, the organization which runs the sloop has told supporters it may be forced to close down.
Guthrie -- a lifelong friend and touring companion of Seeger’s, whose father Woody was Seeger’s early mentor and collaborator -- made his appeal for help in a newly recorded introduction to a 2018 video in which he and family members perform Seeger’s song “Sailing Down My Golden River.” “Years ago,” says Guthrie in the video, “I attended the festivals that Pete Seeger