Seeger's deep feeling for justice and humanity is matched by what he did in terms of artistry and influence: a songwriter and song collector; vocalist and banjo player; performer and inspiration to his friends (many of whom had never met him) around the world.
I thought I knew Pete Seeger pretty well when I arrived in Olympia 20 years ago. I had a copy of his 1963 concert album We Shall Overcome, after all. But although that show was one of the triumphs of Seeger's career, he was so consistent that it's the body of work--with Woody Guthrie, with the Almanac Singers, with the Weavers, and what he did in the 1950s, '60s and beyond--that will last forever. When I heard so many KAOS programmers playing Pete Seeger, I started to dig into his catalog. I also got a huge kick out of a guy in a van, who was parked near me when I took Emily to school back in the '90s. Was he blasting Van Halen or Hip-Hop from the vehicle? No--it was a Pete Seeger concert album, with a full house singing along joyously.
Three really fine anthologies shouldn't escape your collection. If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope and Struggle (compiled in 1998) and Headlines and Footnotes: A Collection of Topical Songs (1999; both on Smithsonian Folkways) mix Seeger's urgent and gentle but always focused approach to social commentary with lovely playing and are organic and wonderful. Harking back to when the banjo was primarily an African-American instrument, the way Seeger absorbed the blues tradition and brought it to his musicianship is a sound that will always comfort me (in one instance, Pete described his banjo playing as "hillbilly flamenco"). Another compilation, A Link In the Chain (Columbia, 1996) has the original "Waist Deep In the Big Muddy," "My Oklahoma
Home Blowed Away" and highlights from We Shall Overcome.
Pete Seeger is an American monument who taught the world to think for itself and live a life of compassion. He did it through the way he performed so many incredible songs that he was obviously so in touch with. My short list of favorites includes: "The Bells of Rhymney," "Turn! Turn! Turn!," "I Come and Stand at Every Door," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Little Boxes" "Bring 'Em Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam"), "Which Side Are You On," and "Waist Deep In the Big Muddy," which has received the most requests of any Pete Seeger song in my years on the radio. Thank you for opening our ears and hearts, Pete.