With Leo Kottke and Sarah Lee Guthrie, ACG Marks 40 Years of Concerts

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Milwaukee’s Shank Hall has been around since 1989 but before that Peter Jest’s Alternative Concert Group (ACG) promoted concerts. Originally a vehicle to present shows at UW-Milwaukee, ACG has grown to present shows around the state.

On Wednesday, March 4, ACG presents Leo Kottke with special guest Sarah Lee Guthrie at the South Milwaukee Performing Arts Center: app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=145215.

Legendary fingerstyle guitarist Kottke has been working steadily since his 1968 release Twelve String Blues; he was subsequently signed to John Fahey’s Takoma record label, releasing his now-classic 6- and 12- String Guitar album, more commonly known as “the Armadillo record.” He was also the recipient of a doctorate degree in music performance by the Peck School of Music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Granddaughter of Woody Guthrie and daughter of Arlo, Sarah Lee Guthrie may have gotten her start as a teen in the early ‘90s, singing Pete Seeger’s “Sailin’ Down My Golden River” on stages in New York, but her first solo show outside of her home state of Massachusetts was at Milwaukee’s Shank Hall in 2000.

40 and Counting …

This year is ACG’s 40th anniversary. Jest said he has worked with Kottke around 75 times, while Guthrie was an obvious choice since Arlo, another artist who ACG has presented, has retired from touring.

Among the shows Jest has presented, a few stand out. “Violent Femmes at the Oriental back in 1985—I was  21 years old and had a sold out show with Milwaukee’s biggest band coming back to play where they were discovered on the sidewalk a few years earlier. John Prine did almost 60 shows and Arlo did 100 shows around the state, and we became friends. Also getting Patti Smith to return after 38 years.”

It's been a long road since March 7,1983 when Spyro Gyra was his first ACG show. And there have been bumps in the road. “I think I had four people at the Barrymore Theater in Madison for [Ghanaian drummer] Obo Addy--that was embarrassing,” he recalls. 

Among other standout ACG concerts were Mott the Hoople, King Crimson and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Jest considers Leonard Cohen the biggest show he promoted, because “it took so long to convince his people to do a date with me in Milwaukee and the fact that he had not played in Milwaukee in 38 years. Sadly, it was one of his last dates before he died.”