Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger
Seeger playing the banjo in 1955
Background information
Birth name	Peter Seeger
Born	(1919-05-03)May 3, 1919 New York City, U.S.
Died	January 27, 2014(2014-01-27)(aged 94) New York City, U.S.
Genres	American folk music protest music Americana
Occupations	Musician songwriter social activist
Instruments	Vocals banjo guitar
Discography	Pete Seeger discography
Years active	1939–2013
Labels	Folkways Columbia/CBS Vanguard Verve Sony Kids' Music/SME
Military career
Branch	United States Army
Years of service	1942–1945
Rank	Corporal
Unit	United States Army Band
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	American Campaign Medal Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal World War II Victory Medal
Signature

Peter Seeger(May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an Americanfolksinger and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, and had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member ofThe Weavers,notably their recording ofLead Belly's "Goodnight, Irene,"which topped the charts for 14 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers wereblacklistedduring theMcCarthy Era.In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer ofprotest musicin support ofinternational disarmament,civil rights,counterculture,workers' rights,andenvironmental causes.

A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"(with additional lyrics byJoe Hickerson), "If I Had a Hammer(The Hammer Song) "(withLee Haysof the Weavers), "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine"(also with Hays), and"Turn! Turn! Turn!(To Everything There Is a Season) ", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement." Flowers "was a hit recording forThe Kingston Trio(1962);Marlene Dietrich,who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); andJohnny Rivers(1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit forPeter, Paul and Mary(1962) andTrini Lopez(1963) whileThe Byrdshad a number one hit with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" in 1965.

Seeger was one of the folk singers responsible for popularizing thespiritual"We Shall Overcome"(also recorded byJoan Baezand many other singer-activists), which became the acknowledged anthem of thecivil rights movement,soon after folk singer and activistGuy Carawanintroduced it at the founding meeting of theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating Committee(SNCC) in 1960. In thePBSAmerican Mastersepisode "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song",Seeger said it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional" We will overcome "to the more singable" We shall overcome ".

Early years

Seeger was born on May 3, 1919, at theFrench Hospital,in New York City.His family, which Seeger called "enormously Christian, in thePuritan,CalvinistNew England tradition ",traced its genealogy back over 200 years. A paternal ancestor, Karl Ludwig Seeger, a physician fromWürttemberg,Germany, had emigrated to America during theAmerican Revolutionand married into the old New England family of Parsons in the 1780s.

Seeger's father, theHarvard-trained composer and musicologistCharles Louis Seeger Jr.,was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to American parents. Charles established the first musicology curriculum in the United States at theUniversity of California, Berkeley,in 1913; helped found theAmerican Musicological Society;and was a key founder of the academic discipline ofethnomusicology.Pete's mother, Constance de Clyver Seeger (née Edson), raised inTunisiaand trained at theParis Conservatory of Music,was a concert violinist and later a teacher at theJuilliard School.

Peter Seeger (on father's lap) with his father and mother, Charles and Constance Seeger and brothers on a camping trip (May 23, 1921)

In 1912, his father, Charles Seeger, was hired to establish the music department at the University of California, Berkeley, but was forced to resign in 1918 because of his outspokenpacifismduringWorld War I.Charles and Constance moved back east, making Charles's parents' estate inPatterson, New York,about 50 miles north of New York City, their base of operations. When baby Pete was eighteen months old, they set out with him and his two older brothers in a homemade trailer to bring musical uplift to the working people in the American South.Upon their return, Constance taught violin and Charles taught composition at the New YorkInstitute of Musical Art(laterJuilliard), whose president, family friendFrank Damrosch,was Constance's adoptive "uncle". Charles also taught part-time at theNew School for Social Research.Career and money tensions led to quarrels and reconciliations, but when Charles discovered Constance had opened a secret bank account in her own name, they separated, and Charles took custody of their three sons.Beginning in 1936, Charles held various administrative positions in the federal government'sFarm Resettlement program,theWPA'sFederal Music Project(1938–1940) and the wartimePan American Union.AfterWorld War II,he taughtethnomusicologyat the University of California, Berkeley, andYale University.

Charles and Constance divorced when Pete was seven and in 1932 Charles married his composition student and assistant,Ruth Crawford,now considered by many to be one of the most importantmodernistcomposers of the 20th century.Deeply interested in folk music, Ruth had contributed musical arrangements toCarl Sandburg's extremely influential folk song anthology,theAmerican Songbag(1927), and later created significant original settings for eight of Sandburg's poems.Pete's eldest brother, Charles Seeger III, was a radio astronomer, and his next older brother, John Seeger, taught in the 1950s at theDalton Schoolin Manhattan and was the principal from 1960 to 1976 atFieldston Lower Schoolinthe Bronx.Pete's uncle,Alan Seeger,a noted Americanwar poet( "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" ), had been one of the first American soldiers to be killed inWorld War I.All four of Pete's half-siblings from his father's second marriage—Margaret (Peggy), Mike, Barbara, and Penelope (Penny)—became folk singers.Peggy Seeger,a well-known performer in her own right, married British folk singer and activistEwan MacColl.Mike Seegerwas a founder of theNew Lost City Ramblers,one of whose members,John Cohen,married Pete's half-sister Penny, also a talented singer, who died young. Barbara Seeger joined her siblings in recording folk songs for children. In 1935, Pete attendedCamp Rising Sun,an international leadership camp held every summer in upstate New York, which influenced his life's work. His final visit occurred in 2012.

Career

Early work

Seeger in 1979

At four, Seeger was sent away to boarding school, but came home two years later when his parents learned the school had failed to inform them he had contractedscarlet fever.He attended first and second grades inNyack, New York,where his mother lived, before entering boarding school inRidgefield, Connecticut.Despite being classical musicians, his parents did not press him to play an instrument. On his own, the otherwise bookish and withdrawn boy gravitated to theukulele,becoming adept at entertaining his classmates with it while laying the basis for his subsequent remarkable audience rapport. At thirteen, Seeger enrolled in theAvon Old Farms SchoolinAvon, Connecticut,from which he graduated in 1936. He was selected to attendCamp Rising Sun,theGeorge E. Jonas Foundation's international summer leadership program. During the summer of 1936, while traveling with his father and stepmother, Pete heard the five-stringbanjofor the first time at theMountain Dance and Folk Festivalin westernNorth CarolinanearAsheville,organized by localfolklorist,lecturer, and traditional music performerBascom Lamar Lunsford,whom Charles Seeger had hired forFarm Resettlementmusic projects.The festival took place in a covered baseball field. There the Seegers:

watched square-dance teams fromBear Wallow,Happy Hollow, Cane Creek, Spooks Branch, Cheoah Valley, Bull Creek, andSoco Gap;heard the five-string banjo playerSamantha Bumgarner;and family string bands, including a group of Indians from the Cherokee reservation who played string instruments and sang ballads. They wandered among the crowds who camped out at the edge of the field, hearing music being made there as well. As Lunsford's daughter would later recall, those country people "held the riches that Dad had discovered. They could sing, fiddle, pick the banjos, and guitars with traditional grace and style found nowhere else but deep in the mountains. I can still hear those haunting melodies drift over the ball park."

For the Seegers, experiencing the beauty of this music firsthand was a "conversion experience". Pete was deeply affected and, after learning basic strokes from Lunsford, spent much of the next four years trying to master the five-string banjo.The teenage Seeger also sometimes accompanied his parents to regular Saturday evening gatherings at theGreenwich Villageloft of painter and art teacherThomas Hart Bentonand his wife Rita. Benton, a lover of Americana, played "Cindy"and"Old Joe Clark"with his studentsCharlieandJackson Pollock;friends from the "hillbilly"recording industry; andavant-gardecomposersCarl RugglesandHenry Cowell.It was at one of Benton's parties that Pete heard "John Henry"for the first time.

Seeger enrolled atHarvard Collegeon a partial scholarship, but as he became increasingly involved with politics and folk music, his grades suffered and he lost his scholarship. He dropped out of college in 1938.He dreamed of a career in journalism and took courses in art as well. His first musical gig was leading students in folk singing at theDalton School,where his aunt was principal. He polished his performance skills during a summer stint of touring New York state with the Vagabond Puppeteers (Jerry Oberwager, 22; Mary Wallace, 22; and Harriet Holtzman, 23), a travelingpuppet theater"inspired by rural education campaigns of post-revolutionary Mexico".One of their shows coincided with a strike by dairy farmers. The group reprised its act in October in New York City. An article in the October 2, 1939,Daily Workerreported on the Puppeteers' six-week tour this way:

During the entire trip the group never ate once in a restaurant. They slept out at night under the stars and cooked their own meals in the open, very often they were the guests of farmers. At rural affairs and union meetings, the farm women would bring "suppers" and would vie with each other to see who could feed the troupe most, and after the affair the farmers would have earnest discussions about who would have the honor of taking them home for the night.

"They fed us too well", the girls reported. "And we could live the entire winter just by taking advantage of all the offers to spend a week on the farm".

In the farmers' homes they talked about politics and the farmers' problems, aboutantisemitismand Unionism, about war and peace and social security— "and always", the puppeteers report, "the farmers wanted to know what can be done to create a stronger unity between themselves and city workers". They felt the need of this more strongly than ever before, and the support of theCIOin their milk strike has given them a new understanding and a new respect for the power that lies in solidarity. One summer has convinced us that a minimum of organized effort on the part of city organizations—unions, consumers' bodies, the American Labor Party and similar groups—can not only reach the farmers but weld them into a pretty solid front with city folks that will be one of the best guarantees for progress.

That fall, Seeger took a job in Washington, D.C., assistingAlan Lomax,a friend of his father's, at theArchive of American Folk Songof theLibrary of Congress.Seeger's job was to help Lomax sift through commercial "race"and"hillbilly"music and select recordings that best represented American folk music, a project funded by the music division of the Pan American Union (later theOrganization of American States), of whose music division his father, Charles Seeger, was head (1938–1953).Lomax also encouraged Seeger's folk-singing vocation, and Seeger was soon appearing as a regular performer on Alan Lomax andNicholas Ray's weeklyColumbia BroadcastingshowBack Where I Come From(1940–41) alongsideJosh White,Burl Ives,Lead Belly,andWoody Guthrie(whom he had first met atWill Geer's Grapes of Wrath benefit concert formigrant workerson March 3, 1940).Back Where I Come Fromwas unique in having aracially integratedcast.The show was a success, but was not picked up by commercial sponsors for nationwide broadcasting because of its integrated cast. Duringthe war,Seeger also performed on nationwide radio broadcasts byNorman Corwin.

From 1942 to 1945, Seeger served in theArmy,as an Entertainment Specialist.

Pete Seeger entertainingEleanor Roosevelt(center), honored guest at a racially integrated Valentine's Day party marking the opening of the United Federal Labor Canteen,CIO,in then-segregated Washington, D.C., 1944

In 1949, Seeger worked as the vocal instructor for the progressiveCity and Country SchoolinGreenwich Village,New York.

Early activism

In 1936, at the age of 17, Pete Seeger joined theYoung Communist League(YCL), then at the height of its influence. In 1942, he became a member of theCommunist Party USA(CPUSA) itself,but he left in 1949.

In the spring of 1941, the twenty-one-year-old Seeger performed as a member of theAlmanac Singersalong with Millard Lampell,Cisco Houston,Woody Guthrie,Butch Hawes andBess Lomax Hawes,and Lee Hays. Seeger and the Almanacs cut several albums of78sonKeynoteand other labels:Songs for John Doe(recorded in late February or March and released in May 1941),Talking Union,and an album each of sea shanties and pioneer songs. Written by Millard Lampell,Songs for John Doewas performed by Lampell, Seeger, and Hays, joined by Josh White and Sam Gary. It contained lines, such as "It wouldn't be much thrill to die for Du Pont in Brazil," that were sharply critical ofRoosevelt's unprecedented peacetime draft (enacted in September 1940). This anti-war/anti-draft tone reflected the Communist Party line after the 1939Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact,which maintained that the war was "phony" and a mere pretext for big American corporations to get Hitler to attack Soviet Russia. Seeger has said he believed this line of argument at the time, as did many fellow members of the Young Communist League (YCL). Though nominally members of thePopular Front,which was allied with Roosevelt and more moderate liberals, the YCL's members still smarted from Roosevelt andChurchill'sarms embargoonLoyalist Spain(which Roosevelt later called a mistake),and the alliance frayed in the confusing welter of events.

A June 16, 1941, review inTimemagazine, which, under its owner,Henry Luce,had become very interventionist, denounced the Almanacs'John Doe,accusing it of scrupulously echoing what it called "the mendacious Moscow tune" that "Franklin Roosevelt is leading an unwilling people into a J.P. Morgan war". Eleanor Roosevelt, a fan of folk music, reportedly found the album "in bad taste", though President Roosevelt, when the album was shown to him, merely observed, correctly, as it turned out, that few people would ever hear it. More alarmist was the reaction of eminent German-born Harvard Professor of GovernmentCarl Joachim Friedrich,an adviser on domestic propaganda to the United States military. In a review in the June 1941Atlantic Monthly,entitled "The Poison in Our System", he pronouncedSongs for John Doe"strictly subversive and illegal", "whether Communist or Nazi financed", and "a matter for the attorney general", observing further that "mere" legal "suppression" would not be sufficient to counteract this type of populist poison,the poison being folk music and the ease with which it could be spread.

While the U.S. had not officially declared war on the Axis powers in the summer of 1941, the country was energetically producing arms and ammunition for its allies overseas. Despite the boom in manufacturing this concerted rearming effort brought, African Americans were barred from working in defense plants. Racial tensions rose as Black labor leaders (such asA. Philip RandolphandBayard Rustin) and their white allies began organizing protests and marches. To combat this social unrest, President Roosevelt issuedExecutive Order 8802(the Fair Employment Act) on 25 June 1941. The order came three days after Hitler broke the non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union, at which time the Communist Party quickly directed its members to get behind the draft and forbade participation in strikes for the duration of the war—angering some leftists. Copies ofSongs for John Doewere removed from sale, and the remaining inventory destroyed, though a few copies may exist in the hands of private collectors.The Almanac Singers'Talking Unionalbum, on the other hand, was reissued as an LP byFolkways(FH 5285A) in 1955 and is still available. The following year, the Almanacs issuedDear Mr. President,an album in support of Roosevelt and the war effort. The title song, "Dear Mr. President", was a solo by Pete Seeger, and its lines expressed his lifelong credo:

Now, Mr. President,
We haven't always agreed in the past, I know,
But that ain't at all important now.
What is important is what we got to do,
We got to lick Mr. Hitler, and until we do,
Other things can wait.

Now, as I think of our great land...
I know it ain't perfect, but it will be someday,
Just give us a little time.

This is the reason that I want to fight,
Not 'cause everything's perfect, or everything's right.
No, it's just the opposite: I'm fightin' because
I want a better America, and better laws,
And better homes, and jobs, and schools,
And no more Jim Crow, and no more rules like
"You can't ride on this train 'cause you're a Negro,"
"You can't live here 'cause you're a Jew,"
"You can't work here 'cause you're a union man."

So, Mr. President,
We got this one big job to do
That's lick Mr. Hitler and when we're through,
Let no one else ever take his place
To trample down the human race.
So what I want is you to give me a gun
So we can hurry up and get the job done.

Seeger's critics, however, continued to bring up the Almanacs' repudiatedSongs for John Doe.In 1942, a year after theJohn Doealbum's brief appearance (and disappearance), the FBI decided that the now-pro-war Almanacs were still endangering the war effort by subverting recruitment. According to the New YorkWorld Telegram(February 14, 1942), Carl Friedrich's 1941 article "The Poison in Our System" was printed up as a pamphlet and distributed by the Council for Democracy (an organization that Friedrich andHenry Luce's right-hand man,C. D. Jackson,Vice President ofTimemagazine, had founded "to combat all the Nazi, fascist, communist, pacifist" antiwar groups in the United States).

Seeger served in theU.S. Armyin thePacific.He was trained as an airplane mechanic, but was reassigned to entertain the American troops with music.Later, when people asked him what he did in the war, he always answered: "I strummed my banjo."After returning from service, Seeger and others establishedPeople's Songs,conceived as a nationwide organization with branches on both coasts and designed to "create, promote and distribute songs of labor and the American People".With Pete Seeger as its director, People's Songs worked for the 1948 presidential campaign of Roosevelt's former Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President,Henry A. Wallace,who ran as a third-party candidate on theProgressive Partyticket. Despite having attracted enormous crowds nationwide, however, Wallace did not win any electoral votes, and following the election, he was excoriated for accepting the help in his campaign of Communists and fellow travelers, such as Seeger and singerPaul Robeson.

Spanish Civil War songs

Seeger had been a fervent supporter of the Republican forces in theSpanish Civil War.In 1943, withTom Glazerand Bess and Baldwin Hawes, he recorded an album of 78s calledSongs of the Lincoln Battalionon Moe Asch's Stinson label. This included such songs as "There's a Valley in Spain Called Jarama"and"Viva la Quince Brigada".In 1960, this collection was re-issued by Moe Asch as one side of a Folkways LP calledSongs of the Lincoln and International Brigades.On the other side was a reissue of the legendarySix Songs for Democracy(originally recorded in Barcelona in 1938 while bombs were falling), performed byErnst Buschand a chorus of members of theThälmann Battalion,made up of volunteers from Germany. The songs were "Moorsoldaten" ( "Peat Bog Soldiers",composed by political prisoners of German concentration camps);"Die Thaelmann-Kolonne","Hans Beimler "," Das Lied von der Einheitsfront "(" Song of the United Front "byHanns EislerandBertolt Brecht), "Lied der Internationalen Brigaden" ( "Song of the International Brigades" ), and "Los cuatro generales" ( "The Four Generals", known in English as "The Four Insurgent Generals" ).

Group recordings

As a self-described "split tenor" (between a tenor and a countertenor),Pete Seeger was a founding member of two highly influential folk groups: theAlmanac Singersandthe Weavers.The Almanac Singers, which Seeger co-founded in 1941 withMillard Lampelland Arkansas singer and activistLee Hays,was a topical group, designed to function as a singing newspaper promoting the industrial unionization movement,racial and religious inclusion, and other progressive causes. Its personnel included, at various times: Woody Guthrie,Bess Lomax Hawes,Sis Cunningham,Josh White,andSam Gary.As a controversial Almanac singer, the 21-year-old Seeger performed under the stage name "Pete Bowers" to avoid compromising his father's government career.

In 1950, the Almanacs were reconstituted as the Weavers, named after the title of an 1892 play byGerhart Hauptmann,about a workers' strike (which contained the lines "We'll stand it no more, come what may!" ). They did benefits for strikers, at which they sang songs such as "Talking Union", about the struggles for unionisation of industrial workers such as miners and automobile workers.Besides Pete Seeger (performing under his own name), members of the Weavers included charter Almanac member Lee Hays,Ronnie Gilbert,andFred Hellerman;laterFrank Hamilton,Erik Darling,andBernie Krauseserially took Seeger's place. In the atmosphere of the 1950s red scare, the Weavers' repertoire had to be less overtly topical than that of the Almanacs had been, and its progressive message was couched in indirect language. The Weavers on occasion performed in tuxedos (unlike the Almanacs, who had dressed informally) and their managers refused to let them perform at political venues. The Weavers' string of majorhitsbegan with "On Top of Old Smoky"and an arrangement ofLead Belly's signature waltz, "Goodnight, Irene",which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950and was covered by many other pop singers. On the flip side of "Irene" was the Israeli song "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena".Other Weavers hits included"Dusty Old Dust" ( "So Long It's Been Good to Know You" by Woody Guthrie),"Kisses Sweeter Than Wine"(by Hays, Seeger, and Lead Belly), and theZulusong bySolomon Linda,"Wimoweh"(aboutShaka), among others.

The Weavers' performing career was abruptly derailed in 1953, at the peak of their popularity, when blacklisting prompted radio stations to refuse to play their records and all their bookings were canceled. They briefly returned to the stage, however, at a sold-out reunion at Carnegie Hall in 1955 and in a subsequentreunion tour,which produced a hit version ofMerle Travis's "Sixteen Tons",as well as LPs of their concert performances."Kumbaya",aGullahblack spiritual dating from slavery days, was also introduced to wide audiences by Pete Seeger and the Weavers (in 1959), becoming a staple of Boy and Girl Scout campfires.

In the late 1950s,the Kingston Triowas formed in direct imitation of (and homage to) the Weavers, covering much of the latter's repertoire, though with a more buttoned-down, uncontroversial, and mainstream collegiate persona. The Kingston Trio produced another phenomenal succession ofBillboardchart hits and, in its turn, spawned a legion of imitators, laying the groundwork for the 1960s commercial folk revival.

In the documentary filmPete Seeger: The Power of Song(2007), Seeger states that he resigned from the Weavers when the three other band members agreed to perform ajinglefor acigarette commercial.

Banjo and 12-string guitar

Four long-neck banjos inspired by Seeger's. The instrument on far left was closely constructed to match Seeger's.American Banjo Museum.

In 1948, Seeger wrote the first version ofHow to Play the Five-String Banjo,a book that manybanjoplayers credit with starting them off on theinstrument.He went on to invent thelong-neckorSeegerbanjo. This instrument is three frets longer than a typical banjo, is slightly longer than a bass guitar at 25 frets, and is tuned a minor third lower than the normal 5-string banjo. Hitherto strictly limited to the Appalachian region,the five-string banjo became known nationwide as the American folk instrument par excellence, largely thanks to Seeger's championing of and improvements to it. According to an unnamed musician quoted inDavid King Dunaway's biography, "by nesting a resonant chord between two precise notes, a melody note and a chiming note on the fifth string", Pete Seeger "gentrified" the more percussive traditionalAppalachian"frailing" style, "with its vigorous hammering of the forearm and its percussive rapping of the fingernail on the banjo head".Although what Dunaway's informant describes is the age-old droned frailing style, the implication is that Seeger made this more acceptable to mass audiences by omitting some of its percussive complexities, while presumably still preserving the characteristic driving rhythmic quality associated with the style.

Inspired by his mentor Woody Guthrie, whose guitar was labeled "This machine kills fascists",Seeger emblazoned his banjo head in 1952 with the slogan" This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces It to Surrender ", writing those words on every subsequent banjo he owned.

From the late 1950s on, Seeger also accompanied himself on the12-string guitar,an instrument of Mexican origin that had been associated withLead Belly,who had styled himself "the King of the 12-String Guitar". Seeger's distinctive custom-made guitars had a triangular soundhole. He combined the long scale length (approximately 28 ") andcapo-to-key techniques that he favored on the banjo with a variant ofdrop-D (DADGBE) tuning,tuned two whole steps down with very heavy strings, which he played with thumb and finger picks.

Interest in steelpan

In 1956, Seeger and his wife, Toshi, traveled toPort of Spain,Trinidad,to seek out information on thesteelpan,sometimes called a steel drum, or "ping-pong". The two searched out a local panyard director, Isaiah, and proceeded to film the construction, tuning and playing of the then-new national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. He was attempting to include the unique flavor of the steelpan in American folk music.

McCarthy era

In the 1950s, and indeed consistently throughout his life, Seeger continued his support of civil and labor rights, racial equality, international understanding, and anti-militarism (all of which had characterized the Wallace campaign), and he continued to believe that songs could help people achieve these goals. However, with the ever-growing revelations ofJoseph Stalin's atrocities and theHungarian Revolution of 1956,he became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet Socialism. He left the CPUSA in 1949, but remained friends with some who did not leave it, although he argued with them about it.

On August 18, 1955, Seeger was subpoenaed to testify before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC). Alone among the many witnesses after the 1950 conviction and imprisonment of theHollywood Tenfor contempt of Congress, Seeger refused to plead theFifth Amendment(which would have asserted that his testimony might be self-incriminating) and instead, as the Hollywood Ten had done, refused to name personal and political associations on the grounds that this would violate hisFirst Amendmentrights: "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this."Seeger's refusal to answer questions that he believed violated his fundamental constitutional rights led to a March 26, 1957, indictment forcontempt of Congress;for some years, he had to keep the federal government apprised of where he was going any time he left the Southern District of New York. He was convicted in a jury trial of contempt of Congress in March 1961, and sentenced to ten one-year terms in jail (to be served simultaneously), but in May 1962, an appeals court ruled the indictment to be flawed and overturned his conviction.

In 1960, theSan Diegoschool board told him that he could not play a scheduled concert at a high school unless he signed an oath pledging that the concert would not be used to promote a communist agenda or an overthrow of the government. Seeger refused, and theAmerican Civil Liberties Unionobtained aninjunctionagainst the school district, allowing the concert to go on as scheduled. Almost 50 years later, in February 2009, the San Diego School District officially extended an apology to Seeger for the actions of its predecessors.

Folk music revival

To earn money during the blacklist period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seeger worked gigs as a music teacher in schools and summer camps, and traveled the college campus circuit. He also recorded as many as five albums a year forMoe Asch'sFolkways Recordslabel. As the nuclear disarmament movement picked up steam in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seeger's anti-war songs, such as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"(co-written withJoe Hickerson), "Turn! Turn! Turn!"adapted from theBook of Ecclesiastes,and "The Bells of Rhymney"by the Welsh poetIdris Davies(1957), gained wide currency. Seeger was the first person to make a studio recording of "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream"in 1956. Seeger also was closely associated with theCivil Rights Movementand in 1963 helped organize a landmarkCarnegie Hallconcert, featuring the youthfulFreedom Singers,as a benefit for theHighlander Folk Schoolin Tennessee. This event, andMartin Luther King Jr.'sMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedomin August of that same year, brought the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome"to wide audiences. He sang it on the 50-mile walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, along with 1,000 other marchers. By this time, Seeger was a senior figure in the 1960s folk revival centered inGreenwich Village,as a longtime columnist inSing Out!,the successor to the People's SongsBulletin,and as a founder of the topicalBroadsidemagazine. To describe the new crop of politically committed folk singers, he coined the phrase "Woody's children", alluding to his associate and traveling companion, Woody Guthrie, who by this time had become a legendary figure. This urban folk-revival movement, a continuation of the activist tradition of the 1930s and 1940s and ofPeople's Songs,used adaptations of traditional tunes and lyrics to effect social change, a practice that goes back to theIndustrial Workers of the Worldor Wobblies'Little Red Song Book,compiled by Swedish-born union organizerJoe Hill(1879–1915) (theLittle Red Song Bookhad been a favorite of Woody Guthrie, who was known to carry it around).

Seeger toured Australia in 1963. His single "Little Boxes",written by Malvina Reynolds, was number one in the nation's Top 40. That tour sparked a folk boom throughout the country at a time when popular music tastes, post–Kennedy assassination,competed between folk, thesurfing craze,and the British rock boom that gave the worldthe BeatlesandThe Rolling Stones,among others. Folk clubs sprang up all over the nation; folk performers were accepted in established venues; Australian performers singing Australian folk songs—many of their own composing—emerged in concerts and festivals, on television, and on recordings; and overseas performers were encouraged to tour Australia.

The long television blacklist of Seeger began to end in the mid-1960s when he hosted a regionally broadcast educational folk-music television show,Rainbow Quest.Among his guests wereJohnny Cash,June Carter,Reverend Gary Davis,Mississippi John Hurt,Doc Watson,the Stanley Brothers,Elizabeth Cotten,Patrick Sky,Buffy Sainte-Marie,Tom Paxton,Judy Collins,Hedy West,Donovan,The Clancy Brothers,Richard FariñaandMimi Fariña,Sonny TerryandBrownie McGhee,Mamou Cajun Band,Bernice Johnson Reagon,the Beers Family,Roscoe Holcomb,Malvina Reynolds,Sonia Malkine, andShawn Phillips.Thirty-ninehour-long programs were recorded atWNJU'sNewarkstudios in 1965 and 1966, produced by Seeger and his wife Toshi, with Sholom Rubinstein. TheSmothers Brothersended Seeger's national blacklisting by broadcasting him singing "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"on their CBS variety show on February 25, 1968, after his similar performance in September 1967 was censored by CBS.

In November 1976, Seeger wrote and recorded the anti-death penalty song "Delbert Tibbs", about the death-row inmateDelbert Tibbs,who was laterexonerated.Seeger wrote the music and selected the words from poems written by Tibbs.

Seeger at 86 on the cover ofSing Out!(Summer 2005), a magazine he helped found in 1950

Seeger also supported the Jewish Camping Movement. He came toSurprise Lake CampinCold Spring, New York,over the summer many times.He sang and inspired countless campers.

Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan

Pete Seeger was one of the earliest backers ofBob Dylan;he was responsible for urging A&R manJohn Hammondto produce Dylan's first LP onColumbia,and for inviting him to perform at theNewport Folk Festival,of which Seeger was a board member.There was a widely repeated story that Seeger was so upset over the extremely loud amplified sound that Dylan, backed by members of theButterfield Blues Band,brought into the 1965Newport Folk Festivalthat he threatened to disconnect the equipment. There are multiple versions of what went on, some fanciful. What is certain is that tensions had been running high between Dylan's managerAlbert Grossmanand Festival board members (who besides Seeger also includedTheodore Bikel,Bruce Jackson,Alan Lomax,festival MCPeter Yarrow,andGeorge Wein) over the scheduling of performers and other matters. Two days earlier, there had been a scuffle and a brief exchange of blows between Grossman and Alan Lomax, and the board, in an emergency session, had voted to ban Grossman from the grounds, but had backed off when George Wein pointed out that Grossman also managed highly popular drawsOdettaandPeter, Paul and Mary.Seeger has been portrayed as a folk "purist" who was one of the main opponents to Dylan's "going electric",but when asked in 2001 about how he recalled his "objections" to the electric style, he said:

I couldn't understand the words. I wanted to hear the words. It was a great song, "Maggie's Farm,"and the sound was distorted. I ran over to the guy at the controls and shouted," Fix the sound so you can hear the words. "He hollered back," This is the way they want it. "I said" Damn it, if I had an axe, I'd cut the cable right now. "But I was at fault. I was the MC, and I could have said to the part of the crowd that booed Bob," you didn't booHowlin' Wolfyesterday. He was electric! "Though I still prefer to hear Dylan acoustic, some of his electric songs are absolutely great. Electric music is the vernacular of the second half of the twentieth century, to use my father's old term.

Vietnam War era and beyond

Pete Seeger, Stern Grove, San Francisco, August 6, 1978

A longstanding opponent of the arms race and of the Vietnam War, Seegersatiricallyattacked then-PresidentLyndon Johnsonwith his 1966 recording, on the albumDangerous Songs!?,ofLen Chandler's children's song "Beans in My Ears".Beyond Chandler's lyrics, Seeger said that" Mrs. Jay's little son Alby "had" beans in his ears ", which, as the lyrics imply,ensures that a person does not hear what is said to them. To those opposed to continuing theVietnam War,the phrase implied that "Alby Jay", a loose pronunciation of Johnson's nickname "LBJ", did not listen to anti-war protests as he too had "beans in his ears".

During 1966, Seeger andMalvina Reynoldstook part in environmental activism. The albumGod Bless the Grasswas released in January of that year and became the first album in history wholly dedicated to songs about environmental issues. Their politics were informed by the same ideologies of nationalism, populism, and criticism of big business.

Seeger attracted wider attention starting in 1967 with his song "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy",about acaptain—referred to in the lyrics as "the big fool" —who drowned while leading a platoon on maneuvers inLouisianaduring World War II. With its lyrics about a platoon being led into danger by an ignorant captain, the song's anti-war message was obvious—the line "the big fool said to push on" is repeated several times.In the face of arguments with the management ofCBSabout whether the song's political weight was in keeping with the usually light-hearted entertainment of theSmothers Brothers Comedy Hour,the final lines were "Every time I read the paper/those old feelings come on/We are waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool says to push on." The lyrics could be interpreted as an allegory of Johnson as the "big fool" and theVietnam Waras the foreseeable danger. Although the performance was cut from the September 1967 show,after wide publicity,it was broadcast when Seeger appeared again on the Smothers' Brothers show on February 25, 1968.

At the November 15, 1969,Vietnam Moratorium Marchon Washington, DC, Seeger led 500,000 protesters in singingJohn Lennon's song "Give Peace a Chance"as they rallied across from the White House. Seeger's voice carried over the crowd, interspersing phrases like" Are you listening,Nixon?"between thechorusesof protesters singing, "All we are saying... is give peace a chance."

In the documentary filmThe Power of Song,Seeger mentions that he and his family visited the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1972.Phạm Tuyêncomposed "Let me hear your guitar, my U.S. friend" ( "Gảy đàn lên hỡi người bạn Mỹ" ) as a tribute to Seeger's support for the DRV. When Seeger and his wife arrived at the airport, Phạm Tuyên greeted them and they sang the song together.

Being a supporter of progressive labor unions, Seeger had supportedEd Sadlowskiin his bid for the presidency of theUnited Steelworkers of America.In 1977, Seeger appeared at a fundraiser inHomestead, Pennsylvania.In 1978, Seeger joined American folk, blues, and jazz singerBarbara Daneat a rally in New York for striking coal miners.He also headlined a benefit concert—with bluegrass artistHazel Dickens—for the striking coal miners of Stearns, Kentucky, at the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 1979.

In 1980, Pete Seeger performed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The performance was later released by Smithsonian Folkways as the albumSingalong Sanders Theater, 1980.

Hudson River sloopClearwater

SloopClearwatersailing up theHudson River

In 1966, Seeger and his wife Toshi founded theHudson River Sloop Clearwater,a nonprofit organization based inPoughkeepsie, New York,that sought to protect theHudson Riverand surrounding wetlands and waterways through advocacy and public education. It constructed a floating ambassador for this environmental mission, the sloopClearwater,and began an annual music and environmental festival, today known as theGreat Hudson River Revival.

Reflection on support for Soviet communism

In 1982, Seeger performed at a benefit concert for the1982 demonstrations in Polandagainst the Polish government. His biographerDavid Dunawayconsiders this the first public manifestation of Seeger's decades-long personal dislike of socialism in its Soviet form.In the late 1980s, Seeger also expressed disapproval of violent revolutions, remarking to an interviewer that he was really in favor of incremental change and that "the most lasting revolutions are those that take place over a period of time".In his autobiographyWhere Have All the Flowers Gone(1993, 1997, reissued in 2009), Seeger wrote, "Should I apologize for all this? I think so." He went on to put his thinking in context:

How couldHitlerhave been stopped?Litvinov,the Soviet delegate to theLeague of Nationsin '36, proposed a worldwide quarantine but got no takers. For more on those times check out pacifistDave Dellinger's book,From Yale to Jail...At any rate, today I'll apologize for a number of things, such as thinking that Stalin was merely a "hard driver" and not a "supremely cruel misleader". I guess anyone who calls himself a Christian should be prepared to apologize for theInquisition,the burning of heretics by Protestants, the slaughter of Jews and Muslims byCrusaders.White people in the U.S.A. ought to apologize forstealing land from Native Americansandenslaving blacks.Europeans could apologize for worldwide conquests, Mongolians forGenghis Khan.And supporters ofRooseveltcould apologize for his support ofSomoza,ofSouthern White Democrats,ofFranco Spain,for puttingJapanese Americans in concentration camps.Who should my granddaughter Moraya apologize to? She's part African, part European, part Chinese, part Japanese, part Native American. Let's look ahead.

Seeger in 1999

In a 1995 interview, however, he insisted that "I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it". In later years, as the aging Seeger began to garner awards and recognition for his lifelong activism, he also found himself criticized once again for his opinions and associations of the 1930s and 1940s. In 2006,David Boaz—Voice of AmericaandNPRcommentator and president of thelibertarianCato Institute—wrote an opinion piece inThe Guardian,entitled "Stalin's Songbird", in which he excoriatedThe New YorkerandThe New York Timesfor lauding Seeger. He characterized Seeger as "someone with a longtime habit of following the party line" who had only "eventually" parted ways with the CPUSA. In support of this view, he quoted lines from theAlmanac Singers' May 1941Songs for John Doe,contrasting them darkly with lines supporting the war fromDear Mr. President,issued in 1942, after the United States and the Soviet Union had entered the war.

In 2007, in response to criticism from historianRon Radosh,a formerTrotskyistwho now writes for the conservativeNational Review,Seeger wrote a song condemning Stalin, "Big Joe Blues":

I'm singing about old Joe, cruel Joe.
He ruled with an iron hand.
He put an end to the dreams
Of so many in every land.
He had a chance to make
A brand new start for the human race.
Instead he set it back
Right in the same nasty place.
I got the Big Joe Blues.
Keep your mouth shut or you will die fast.
I got the Big Joe Blues.
Do this job, no questions asked.
I got the Big Joe Blues.

The song was accompanied by a letter to Radosh, in which Seeger stated, "I think you're right, I should have asked to see thegulagswhen I was in U.S.S.R. [in 1965]. "

Later work

Seeger (left), performing withKabir SumanatKolkatain 1996

Seeger at theClearwater Festivalin June 2007

Seeger appears in the 1997 documentary filmAn Act of Conscience,which was filmed between 1988 and 1995. In the film, Seeger joins a group of demonstrators protesting in support ofwar tax resistersRandy Kehlerand Betsy Corner, whose home was seized by theInternal Revenue Service(IRS) after the couple openly refused to pay their federal income taxes as a protest against war and military spending.

On March 16, 2007, Pete Seeger, his sisterPeggy,his brothersMikeand John, his wife Toshi, and other family members spoke and performed at a symposium and concert sponsored by theAmerican Folklife Centerin honor of theSeeger family,held at theLibrary of Congressin Washington, D.C.,where Pete Seeger had been employed by the Archive of American Folk Song 67 years earlier.

Pete Seeger (right), 88 years old, photographed in March 2008 with his friend, the writer and musicianEd Renehan

In September 2008,Appleseed RecordingsreleasedAt 89,Seeger's first studio album in 12 years. On September 29, 2008, the 89-year-old singer-activist, once banned from commercial TV, made a rare national TV appearance on theLate Show with David Letterman,singing "Take It From Dr. King".

On January 18, 2009, Seeger and his grandsonTao Rodríguez-SeegerjoinedBruce Springsteenand the crowd in singing the Woody Guthrie song "This Land Is Your Land"in the finale of Barack Obama's inaugural concert in Washington, D.C.The performance was noteworthy for the inclusion oftwo versesnot often included in the song, one about a "private property" sign the narrator cheerfully ignores, and the other making a passing reference to aDepression-era relief office. The former's final line, however, "This land was made for you and me", is modified to "That side was made for you and me".

Over the years, he lent his fame to support numerous environmental organizations, including South Jersey's Bayshore Center, the home of New Jersey's tall ship, the oyster schoonerA.J. Meerwald.Seeger's benefit concerts helped raise funds for groups so they could continue to educate and spread environmental awareness.On May 3, 2009, atthe Clearwater Concert,dozens of musicians gathered in New York at Madison Square Garden to celebrate Seeger's 90th birthday (which was later televised onPBSduring the summer),ranging fromDave Matthews,John Mellencamp,Billy Bragg,Bruce Springsteen,Tom Morello,Eric Weissberg,Ani DiFrancoandRoger McGuinntoJoan Baez,Richie Havens,Joanne Shenandoah,R. Carlos Nakai,Bill Miller,Joseph Fire Crow,Margo Thunderbird,Tom Paxton,Ramblin' Jack Elliott,andArlo Guthrie.Cuban singer-songwriterSilvio Rodríguezwas also invited to appear, but his visa was not approved in time by the United States government. Consistent with Seeger's longtime advocacy for environmental concerns, the proceeds from the event benefited theHudson River Sloop Clearwater,a non-profit organization founded by Seeger in 1966, to defend and restore theHudson River.Seeger's 90th birthday was also celebrated atThe College of Staten Islandon May 4. On September 19, 2009, Seeger made his first appearance at the 52nd Monterey Jazz Festival, which was particularly notable because the festival does not normally feature folk artists.

In 2010, still active at the age of 91, Seeger co-wrote and performed the song"God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You"with Lorre Wyatt, commenting on theDeepwater Horizon oil spill.A performance of the song by Seeger, Wyatt, and friends was recorded and filmed aboard the sloopClearwaterin August for a single and video produced byRichard Baroneand Matthew Billy, released on election day, November 6, 2012.

External videos
Civil Rights History Project: Pete Seeger,57:42,Library of Congress

On October 21, 2011, at age 92, Pete Seeger was part of a solidarity march withOccupy Wall Streetto Columbus Circle in New York City.The march began with Seeger and fellow musicians exiting Symphony Space (95th and Broadway), where they had performed as part of a benefit for Seeger's Clearwater organization. Thousands of people crowded Pete Seeger by the time they reached Columbus Circle, where he performed with his grandson,Tao Rodríguez-Seeger,Arlo Guthrie,David Amram,and other celebrated musicians.The event, promoted under the name OccupyTheCircle, was livestreamed, and was dubbed by some "the Pete Seeger March".

In January 2012, Seeger joined the Rivertown Kids in paying tribute to his friend Bob Dylan, performing Dylan's "Forever Young"on theAmnesty InternationalalbumChimes of Freedom.This song, Seeger's last single, marked Seeger's only music video, which went viral in the wake of his death two years later.

On December 14, 2012, Seeger performed, along withHarry Belafonte,Jackson Browne,Common,and others, at a concert to bring awareness to the 37-year-long ordeal of Native American activistLeonard Peltier.The concert was held at theBeacon Theatrein New York City.

On April 9, 2013, Hachette Audio Books issued an audiobook entitledPete Seeger: The Storm King; Stories, Narratives, Poems.This two-CD spoken-word work was conceived of and produced by noted percussionistJeff Haynesand presents Pete Seeger telling the stories of his life against a background of music performed by more than 40 musicians of varied genres.The launch of the audiobook was held at theDia:Beaconon April 11, 2013, to an enthusiastic audience of around two hundred people, and featured many of the musicians from the project (among themSamite,Dar Williams,Dave Eggar,andRichie Stearnsofthe Horse FliesandNatalie Merchant) performing live under the direction of producer and percussionistHaynes.April 15, 2013,Sirius XM Book Radiopresented theDia:Beaconconcert as a special episode ofCover to Cover Live with Maggie Linton and Kim Alexander,entitled "Pete Seeger: The Storm King and Friends".

On August 9, 2013, one month widowed, Seeger was in New York City for the 400-year commemoration of theTwo Row Wampum Treatybetween the Iroquois and the Dutch. On an interview he gave that day toDemocracy Now!,Seeger sang "I Come and Stand at Every Door", as it was also the 68th anniversary of thebombing of Nagasaki.

On September 21, 2013, Pete Seeger performed atFarm Aidat theSaratoga Performing Arts CenterinSaratoga Springs, New York.Joined by Wille Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, and Dave Matthews, he sang "This Land Is Your Land",and included a verse he said he had written specifically for the Farm Aid concert.

Personal life

Seeger marriedToshi Aline Ohtain 1943, whom he credited with being the support that helped make the rest of his life possible. The couple remained married until Toshi's death in July 2013.Their first child, Peter Ōta Seeger, was born in 1944 and died at six months, while Pete was deployed overseas. Pete never saw him.They went on to have three more children: Daniel (an accomplished photographer and filmmaker),Mika(a potter and muralist), and Tinya (a potter), as well as grandchildrenTao Rodríguez-Seeger(a musician), Cassie (an artist), Kitama Cahill-Jackson (a psychotherapist), Moraya (a marriage and family therapist married to the NFL playerChris DeGeare), Penny, and Isabelle, and great-grandchildren Dio and Gabel. Tao, a folk musician in his own right, sings and plays guitar, banjo, and harmonica withthe Mammals.Kitama Jackson is a documentary filmmaker who was associate producer of the 2007PBSdocumentaryPete Seeger: The Power of Song.

When asked byBeliefnetabout his religious or spiritual beliefs, and his definition of God, Seeger replied:

Nobody knows for sure. But people undoubtedly get feelings which are not explainable and they feel they're talking to God or they're talking to their parents who are long dead. I feel most spiritual when I'm out in the woods. I feel part of nature. Or looking up at the stars. [I used to say] I was an atheist. Now I say, it's all according to your definition of God. According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something I'm listening to God. I've had preachers of the gospel, Presbyterians and Methodists, saying, "Pete, I feel that you are a very spiritual person". And maybe I am. I feel strongly that I'm trying to raise people's spirits to get together.... I tell people I don't think God is an old white man with a long white beard and no navel; nor do I think God is an old black woman with white hair and no navel. But I think God is literally everything, because I don't believe that something can come out of nothing. And so there's always been something. Always is a long time.

He was a member of aUnitarian Universalist Churchin New York.

Seeger lived inBeacon, New York.He and Toshi purchased their land in 1949 and lived there first in a trailer, then in a log cabin they built themselves. He remained engaged politically and maintained an active lifestyle in theHudson Valleyregion of New York throughout his life. For years during theIraq War,Seeger maintained a weekly protest vigil alongside Route 9 inWappingers Falls,near his home. He told aNew York Timesreporter that "working for peace was like adding sand to a basket on one side of a large scale, trying to tip it one way despite enormous weight on the opposite side." He went on to say, "Some of us try to add more sand by teaspoons... It's leaking out as fast as it goes in and they're all laughing at us. But we're still getting people with teaspoons. I get letters from people saying, 'I'm still on the teaspoon brigade.'"

Toshi died in Beacon on July 9, 2013, at the age of 91,and Pete died at New York–Presbyterian Hospital in New York City on January 27, 2014, at the age of 94.

Legacy

Response and reaction to Seeger's death quickly poured in. PresidentBarack Obamanoted that Seeger had been called "America's tuning fork"and that he believed in "the power of song" to bring social change, "Over the years, Pete used his voice and his hammer to strike blows for workers' rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation, and he always invited us to sing along. For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger."Folksinger and fellow activistBilly Braggwrote that "Pete believed that music could make a difference. Not change the world, he never claimed that – he once said that if music could change the world he'd only be making music – but he believed that while music didn't have agency, it did have the power to make a difference."Bruce Springsteensaid of Seeger's death, "I lost a great friend and a great hero last night, Pete Seeger," before performing "We Shall Overcome"while on tour in South Africa.

Tributes

External audio
“Fresh Air with Terry Gross, January 28, 2014: Obituary for Pete Seeger",Fresh Air with Terry Gross.Scroll down to 'View online' to hear the audio interview.

• A proposal was made in 2009 to name theWalkway Over the Hudsonin his honor.
• A posthumous suggestion that Seeger's name be applied to thereplacement Tappan Zee Bridgebeing built over theHudson Riverwas made by a local town supervisor.Seeger's boat, thesloopClearwater,is based atBeacon, New York,just upriver from the bridge and frequently sails down to Manhattan to continuing spreading Seeger's message and music.
• Oakwood Friends School,located in Poughkeepsie New York, not far from Seeger's home, performed "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"at one of their worship meetings. The collaboration was with three teachers (playing guitar and vocals) as well as a student harmonica player and a student vocalist.
• A free five-day memorial called Seeger Fest took place on July 17–21, 2014, featuring Judy Collins, Peter Yarrow, Harry Belafonte, Anti-Flag, Michael Glabicki of Rusted Root, Steve Earle, Holly Near, Fred Hellerman, Guy Davis, DJ Logic, Paul Winter Consort, Dar Williams, DJ Kool Herc, The Rappers Delight Experience, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, David amram, Mike + Ruthy, Tom Chapin, James Maddock, The Chapin Sisters, Rebel Diaz, Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emma's Revolution, Toni Blackman, Kim & Reggie Harris, Magpie, Abrazos Orchestra, Nyraine, George Wein, The Vanaver Caravan, White Tiger Society, Lorre Wyatt, AKIR, Adira & Alana Amram, Aurora Barnes, The Owens Brothers, The Tony Lee Thomas Band, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, New York City Labor Chorus, Roland Moussa, Roots Revelators, Kristen Graves, Bob Reid, Hudson River Sloop Singers, Walkabout Clearwater Chorus, Betty & The baby Boomers, Work O' The Weavers, Jacob Bernz * Sarah Armour, and Amanda Palmer.
• In 2006, thirteen folk music songs made popular by Pete Seeger were reinterpreted byBruce Springsteenon his fourteenth studio album,We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.
• In 2014, Wepecket Island Records recorded a Pete Seeger tribute album calledFor Pete's Sake.
• In 2020,Kronos QuartetreleasedLong Time Passing,an album of all new arrangements of Pete Seeger's music commissioned by the FreshGrass Foundation and released onSmithsonian Folkways.
• On July 21, 2022, the United States Postal Service issued a Pete Seeger"Forever"stamp. The stamp is based on a photograph of Seeger playing a long neck banjo, taken by Seeger's son Daniel some time in the early 1960s. It's a commemorative in the Music Icons series, with a print quantity of 22,000,000.

Awards

Seeger received many awards and recognitions throughout his career, including:

• Induction into theSongwriters Hall of Fame(1972)
• TheEugene V. DebsAward (1979)
• TheLetelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award(1986)
• TheGrammy Lifetime Achievement Award(1993)
• TheNational Medal of Artsfrom theNational Endowment for the Arts(1994)
• Kennedy Center Honor(1994)
• The Harvard Arts Medal (1996)
• The James Smithson Bicentennial Medal (1996)
• Induction into theRock and Roll Hall of Fame(1996)
• Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Albumof 1996 for his recordPete(1997)
• The Felix Varela Medal,Cuba's highest honor for "his humanistic and artistic work in defense of the environment and against racism" (1999)
• TheSchneider Family Book Awardfor his children's picture bookThe Deaf Musicians.(2007)
• TheMid-Hudson Civic CenterHall of Fame (2008)- Seeger and Arlo Guthrie performed the first public concert at the Poughkeepsie, New York not-for-profit family entertainment venue, close to Seeger's home, in 1976. Grandson Tao Rodríguez-Seeger accepted the Hall of Fame plaque on behalf of his grandfather.
• Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Albumof 2008 for his recordAt 89(2009)
• The Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Awardfor his commitment to peace and social justice as a musician, songwriter, activist, and environmentalist that spans over sixty years. (2008)
• The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize(2009)
• Grammy Award for Best Musical Album for Childrenof 2010 for his record albumTomorrow's Childrenwith the Rivertown Kids and Friends (2011)
• George Peabody Medal(2013)
• Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Albumof 2013 nomination forPete Seeger: The Storm King; Stories, Narratives, Poems(2014)
• Woody GuthriePrize (2014) (inaugural recipient)

Selected discography

Main article:Pete Seeger discography

• American Folk Songs for Children(1953)
• Birds, Beasts, Bugs, and Little Fishes(1955)
• American Industrial Ballads(1956)
• American Favorite Ballads, Vol. 2(1958)
• Gazette, Vol. 1(1958)
• Sleep-Time: Songs & Stories(1958)
• God Bless the Grass(1966)
• Dangerous Songs!?(1966)
• Rainbow Race(1973)
• American Folk Songs for Children(1990)
• At 89(2008)

See also

• List of banjo players
• List of peace activists
• Tom Winslow– Clearwater singer and songwriter
• Union Boys

References

• Dunaway, David K.How Can I Keep from Singing: The Ballad of Pete Seeger.[McGraw Hill (1981), DaCapo (1990)] Revised Edition. New York: Villard Trade Paperback, 2008ISBN0-07-018150-0,ISBN0-07-018151-9,ISBN0-306-80399-2,ISBN0-345-50608-1.Audio Version
• Dunaway, David K.Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing.three one-hour radio documentaries, Public Radio International, 2008
• Dunaway, David K.The Pete Seeger Discography.Scarecrow Press: Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.
• Forbes, Linda C. "Pete Seeger on Environmental Advocacy, Organizing, and Education in the Hudson River Valley: An Interview with the Folk Music Legend, Author and Storyteller, Political and Environmental Activist, and Grassroots Organizer."Organization & Environment,17, No. 4, 2004: pp. 513–522.
• Gardner, Elysa. "Seeger: A 'Power' in music, politics."USA Today,February 27, 2008. p. 8D.
• Seeger, Pete.How to Play the Five-String Banjo,New York: People's Songs, 1948. 3rd edition, New York: Music Sales Corporation, 1969.ISBN0-8256-0024-3.
• Tick, Judith.Ruth Crawford Seeger: A Composer's Search for American Music.Oxford University Press, 1997.
• Wilkinson, Alec."The Protest Singer: Pete Seeger and American folk music,"The New Yorker,April 17, 2006, pp. 44–53.
• Wilkinson, Alec.The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger.New York: Knopf, 2009.
• Winkler, Allan M. (2009).To everything there is a season: Pete Seeger and the power of song.Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press.
• Zollo, Paul (January 7, 2005)."Pete Seeger Reflects on His Legendary Songs".GRAMMY Magazine. Archived fromthe originalon November 24, 2005.

Further reading

• Briggs, John,Pete Seeger, The People's Singer,Atombank Books, 2015,ISBN0990516075
• "The Music Man" (profile and interview). InSomething to Say: Thoughts on Art and Politics in America,text by Richard Klin, photos by Lily Prince, Leapfrog Press, 2011.
• Reich, Susanna,Stand Up and Sing! Pete Seeger, Folk Music and the Path to Justice,Bloomsbury, 2017.ISBN978-0802738127
• Renehan, Edward,Pete Seeger vs. the Un-Americans: A Tale of the Blacklist,New Street Communications, LLC, 2014.ISBN978-0615998138
• Seeger, Pete (Edited by Rob and Sam Rosenthal),Pete Seeger: In His Own Words,Paradigm Publishers, 2012.ISBN1612052185.ISBN978-1612052182
• Seeger, Pete (Edited by Ronald D. Cohen and James Capaldi),The Pete Seeger Reader,Oxford University Press, 2014.ISBN9780199862016
• Seeger, Pete (Edited by Jo Metcalf Schwartz),The Incompleat Folksinger,New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.ISBN0-671-20954-X(excerpts) Also, reprinted in a Bison Book edition, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.ISBN0-8032-9216-3.

External links

• David Dunaway (Seeger biographer and original site creator)."Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing?".peteseeger.org.Archived fromthe originalon January 28, 2014.RetrievedSeptember 29,2008.
• Jim Capaldi (original site creator)."Pete Seeger Appreciation Page".peteseeger.net.Archived fromthe originalon December 20, 2012.
• Matthews, Scott (August 6, 2008)."John Cohen in Eastern Kentucky: Documentary Expression and the Image of Roscoe Halcomb During the Folk Revival".Southern Spaces.
• Pareles, Jon (January 28, 2014)."Obituary: Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94".The New York Times.
• "Peter Seeger b. 3 May 1919 d. 27 January 2014 – Full Tree".rodovid.RetrievedSeptember 28,2016.
• "Pete Seeger's FBI File Reveals How the Folk Legend First Became a Target of the Feds",Mother Jones,2015
• Pete Seeger InterviewatNAMM Oral History Collection