Some people come from musical families. Now that folk musician Arlo Guthrie's grandchildren are performing onstage, his family legacy goes back nearly 100 years.

The son of American songwriting icon Woody Guthrie and the long-established musician has decided to take his family along for a tour to showcase the new torchbearers of Guthrie music.

The folk-singing clan will perform tonight at the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave. Mike Negra, executive director for the State Theatre, said the concert has sold out as of press time Monday.

Although this tour should further cement the Guthrie name in folk music history, Arlo Guthrie remains humble about his legacy.

"We just think of ourselves as us," Arlo said. "We're not the von Trapps. This is not musical theater. It's a lot more loose than other entertainment stuff."

Arlo said there was no agenda in having his children -- Abe, Cathy, Annie and Sarah Lee -- play music professionally. It just happened that way.

The Woodstock veteran and the writer of as "Alice's Restaurant Massacre" and "The Motorcycle Song," followed in the footsteps of his father, who wrote "This Land is Your Land" and is considered one of America's greatest songwriters.

"I never thought I would be playing music professionally," Arlo Guthrie said, "Somehow or other, I got stuck doing this. I didn't pressure my kids to do this, either -- all of them learned a little bit just because they wanted to, and they decided they wanted to do this professionally, too."

Sarah Lee Guthrie said she did not want to play music professionally until she met her husband, folk musician Johnny Irion.

The two musicians met through Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson and performed as a duo. Sarah Lee's desire to play with Irion -- not her father and grandfather's legacies -- encouraged her become a professional musician.

Sarah Lee Guthrie and her husband released "Go Waggaloo" in October, a children's folk album on the Smithsonian Folkways label.

She said the label called the duo to make a family record that didn't want to make parents want to "jump out of a minivan."

Music keeps ties within the family so strong, she said. Playing music requires everyone to listen in order to be played correctly.

"We look at each other in a completely different light," Sarah Lee Guthrie said. "I can only imagine what my dad is thinking about how great this is."

The idea of having a family tour is a dream that has been in place since Woody's time, Arlo Guthrie said.

"My father and mother, decades ago, had this idea that they were going to have a bunch of kids and grandkids and they would tour around and sing together," Arlo Guthrie said. "It was a dream they never got to see. We're living someone else's dream, but were having a lot of fun doing it."

Arlo Guthrie remembers when he was doing a tour through Harrisburg and someone suggested he play in State College.

"It would just be nice to be back there after all these years and to bring the whole crew," he said.

Negra said the State Theatre is honored to have Arlo Guthrie and his family perform at his venue, calling Arlo a folk "institution."

The timing of the concert is perfect because of its proximity to the Thanksgiving holiday, Negra said. Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacre" is an 18-minute song about how he avoided selective service after he was convicted of littering because a landfill was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The song is played by classic rock radio stations across the country every Thanksgiving.

Arlo will also soon release a new album called "Tales of '69," which contains lost tapes of live recordings and three previously unreleased songs.

Negra said this tour should solidify the Guthries' status as a performing family like the country-singing Carter Family.

"It's an American icon," Negra said, "and it's great to see the tradition continuing."