INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — He's sung about New Orleans, Los Angeles and Massachusetts, but when it comes to calling a place home, the Sebastian River area has sung to Arlo Guthrie's heart.

"Simply said, I love the area," said the 72-year-old legendary folk singer who lives on the riverside in the Roseland area in northern Indian River County, about 15 miles north of Vero Beach. "Although it’s changing rapidly, the area around here has some sensibilities that suit me personally."

Guthrie's home is up for sale for $1.65 million, but he's not packing his guitars and furniture and moving too far away. His partner, Marti Ladd, has a home in Micco in Brevard County, just a few miles from his current home.

They'll move there once the house, which was listed in December, is sold.

The two-story, four-bedroom house he built on Indian River Drive is bigger than his current needs. But Guthrie said the Sebastian River area fits him just fine because "it isn’t too built up, there’re no huge hotels along the coasts, the traffic is reasonable, there’s great food and shopping without the desire to continuously make it bigger and better."

Realtor Janyne Kenworthy of Treasure Coast Sotheby's International Realty is handling the sale of the home. The online listing touts the home at 13690 N. Indian River Drive as "Arlo Guthrie's home!" and highlights its wide river views, private riverfront decks and tropical courtyard garden.

Guthrie was one of the performers at the legendary Woodstock concert in 1969. He rose to fame on his song, "Alice's Restaurant," which chronicled a 1965 littering arrest in Massachusetts and segued into a Vietnam War protest. He's the son of another folk legend, the late Woody Guthrie.

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Guthrie begins his "20/20 Tour" next month, with a Feb. 9 concert in Clearwater. He'll hit 22 cities in 3 1/2 months for the tour.

"I’ve spent the better part of the last 50 years as a touring musician," he said. "I loved returning here for a few weeks at a time, restoring myself, visiting friends, and generally being under the radar. It gave me time to enjoy the river, the sunshine, the sense of being a local in a kind of old Florida that almost doesn’t exist anymore."

Guthrie's travels brought him to Florida many times in his younger adult life. Specifically, he would visit his in-laws in West Palm Beach in the 1970s and 1980s.

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He eventually became friends with many at the Kashi Ashram ranch in Roseland. The ranch is an interfaith spiritual community based on kindness, compassion and service, embracing the sacred practices of many traditions, according to its website. It was founded by Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati in 1976, who has since died..

"I still have many dear friends there," he said. "So our trips to the area included spending time with both ‘families'.”

In 1987, Guthrie and his wife, Jackie, purchased the property known as the "Crabhouse." It was once a U.S. Coast Guard station, then became a crab business. The couple intended to restore the building and place his recording studio there, but damages from hurricanes across several years curtailed those plans.

Instead, the Guthries built their home there.

"It took a long time, but we finally finished construction in 2010," Guthrie said. "By the time we finished it, all the kids had moved out and began having kids of their own. For a couple of years Jackie and I enjoyed the place, especially when the kids visited."

Jackie Guthrie died in 2012 at age 68.

"The house remains as it was originally designed; a really big place," Guthrie said. "It would be better suited for a young family. In other words, it’s time to let it go."

He hates to part with at least one aspect of the home.

"The thing I will most likely miss is sunrise on the Indian River," he said. "It’s simply magical, and this home is essentially on the water. I don’t expect I’ll find that anywhere else."

Stancil is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Contact Stancil at 321-987-7179 or lamaur.stancil@tcpalm.com. Twitter: @TCPalmLStancil