The great Pete Seeger turns 90 on Sunday

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

NEW YORK — Three months after Bruce Springsteen persuaded Pete Seeger to sing This Land Is Your Land with him at President Obama's inaugural concert, they'll be back together on stage Sunday — on Seeger's 90th birthday.
A sold-out benefit concert at Madison Square Garden will celebrate Seeger, the folk singer/songwriter who was banished from commercial TV for 17 years.

Seeger says a party for 15,000 isn't his idea of a birthday celebration, even with more than 40 musicians, including Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder and Arlo Guthrie, whose dad, Woody, taught Seeger how to jump freight trains 60 years ago.

But he agreed to it because it will benefit his Hudson River environmental group. Or, as Seeger puts it, "wooden boats don't last forever."

more:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2009-04-30-seeger-birthday_N.htm

[Elwood P Dowd]

1. Gotta' love Pete.

One of my favorite LPs is the 1963 Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall.

[pscot]

7. I don't gotta

I loved Peggy. She had the voice of an angel. I always thought Pete was kind of over the top.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. Was she better than Ronnie Gilbert?

Why was Pete over the top?

[pscot]

10. When I firstheard Alyson Krauss

before she became a feature singer, she reminded me of Peggy Seeger. Her voice had a purity, almost an innocent quality. Billy Holiday had it too, when she was younger, though she was certainly no angel. As for Pete, he is what he is. I admire the man. H's always had the courage to stand up and speak out; in some pretty dark times, too. I just think his brio seems a little over the top at times. Is it real or is it schtick. Can schtick be authentic? Can authenticity be faked? It's complicated, and I'm probably overthinking it. I wish him a happy birthday, and I hope we're all doing as well at 90 as he is.

[spanone]

2. k&r for Pete Seeger

[mdmc]

3. k.r. - link from local paper

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=ENTERTAIN37

[mdmc]

4. clearwater link

http://www.clearwater.org/

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. Here's a link to Pete's sloop club in Beacon. He used to be President but I'm sure he'll

still be at their festivals. :)

http://www.beaconsloopclub.org/

:hi:

[RoccoR5955]

34. He's ALWAYS at their festivals.

Especially the Strawberry festival in June. Freshly made strawberry shortcakes, and lots of music in the park by the river. You can get there on Metro North. It's spitting distance from the train station.

[malaise]

29. Thanks n/t

[givemebackmycountry]

5. Where is this man's Medal of Freedom?

Our President needs to hang one around his neck sometime this week.
And hopefully, Pete will be wearing a flannel shirt and that old hat.

I know it's trivial, and I know some will mock me, and I know we have bigger fish to fry.
BUT...

THIS IS A TRUE AMERICAN HERO.

Let's give him his due.
Not that Pete would give a shit, that is why we love him, but it's the right thing to do.

"So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
If you run into Jesus
Maybe he can help you out
Come back Woody Guthrie to us now"

Pete IS that guy.

[LWolf]

30. I'll second that. nt

[amerikat]

6. Pete and Bruce sing at the inaguaration.........This land is your land

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YlLtmMV8zs

[RufusTFirefly]

9. K & R for Pete n/t

[JenniferJuniper]

11. The Weavers are true survivors

Their "tribute" to Dubya:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VIuMPSumPM

[Elwood P Dowd]

12. Thanks.

Nice hearing them talk about Lee Hays.

[no_hypocrisy]

18. At their Reunion at Carnegie Hall in December, 1980, Reagan had just been elected.

Lee Hays told the audience, "to be of good cheer, for this too shall pass . . . and I've had kidney stones, so I should know."

I can't remember another group so persecuted as the Weavers. I always have admired their integrity and talent.

[ConsAreLiars]

13. Seattle has a celebration of his birthday also. Catch this quote from

the announcement: "Seeger popularized the word “hootenanny” after he visited Seattle in the late
1930s while travelling with fellow folk songster Woody Guthrie."

He was fighting the good fight long, long before 95% of the people on this planet were even born, and he is still serving.

http://www.clayeals.com/pdfs/SeegerAdmiral.pdf

[Elwood P Dowd]

14. I went to a "hootenanny” a few times

in the early 1960s, and then they went away.

[struggle4progress]

15. ... The songwriter of "Turn, Turn, Turn," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "If I Had a Hammer"

turns 90 today and will be celebrated at a Madison Square Garden benefit concert, featuring Seeger and admirers such as Bruce Springsteen, Roger McGuinn, Joan Baez, Dave Matthews and many others ...

Seeger was called to give testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in August 1955. A transcript of the committee's Q&A shows he guilelessly flummoxed the McCarthyites with variants of: "I feel these questions are improper, sir, and I feel it is immoral to ask any American this kind of question." (Seeger was in fact a Communist in his youth but left the party in 1949, later renouncing Stalin and condemning the Soviet gulag system.)

Seeger was indicted for contempt of Congress and in May 1961 was tried, convicted and sentenced to a year in jail. Although the verdict was dismissed, Seeger spent much of the 1950s and early '60s on a blacklist. After 1950, he didn't appear on a national TV broadcast again until 1967, when he sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ...

The Protest Singer' by Alec Wilkinson: Biographer makes concise work of Pete Seeger's complex life
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, May 3, 2009
By JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bk_seeger_0503gd.ART.State.Edition1.4a54bc7.html

[malaise]

16. Happy BIrthday Pete

That should be a great concert today.

[mdmc]

19. kick

:patriot:

[Smarmie Doofus]

17. It says "sold out" but if anyone hears otherwise.....

... can you PM me, please.

I never really go anywhere but I *would* like to be there for that.

[mdmc]

20. Folk music legend, Beacon resident, Pete Seeger turns 90 today

By Sandy Tomcho
Times Herald-Record
Posted: May 03, 2009 - 2:00 AM
Folk singer Pete Seeger has influenced and inspired hundreds, if not thousands, of musicians during his impressive career.

For today, his 90th birthday, we asked Pete's friends to talk about him, focusing on his humility, his peacefulness and his desire to give back and promote a better life.

Happy birthday, Pete.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090503/NEWS/905030329

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

22. Happy Birthday Dear ((((((Pete)))))!!!!! I've always loved you! :)

[mdmc]

32. .

:hi:

[Better Believe It]

23. Happy Birthday!

[Canuckistanian]

24. Just listening to a CBC show on Seeger right now

There'll probably be a podcast for it later.

[malaise]

25. Please post it for us

Thanks in advance

[condoleeza]

26. PBS has a great documentary on him

they have been running it off and on all year. Perhaps there is a podcast available on their website. It is very well done, my husband's cousin produced it so we got to see it before it was finished. I got to see him in 68, he is a sweet man who has lived his principles all his life.

[Canuckistanian]

27. Sure thing

It'll be here in a couple of days:
http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?newsandcurrent#sundayedition

[FailureToCommunicate]

28. Singing FOR Pete, and working with him at the Clearwater Festival years ago was

a highlight of my life. (Pete was always willing to listen to aspiring young songsters, no matter how , ah, artistically challenged...)
Pete's amazing life has touched countless people. He has been a role model of role models, but if you were around him you never got any sense he thought of himself as 'better' than you. Indeed, Pete could be counted on to be the last person at an evening sing session- usually the one with a mop cleaning up...
A great man. A great legacy.

"Stugglin' on, strugglin' on"

Go Pete!
Have fun today at the party!
Happy Birthday!

[Ikonoklast]

31. Happy Birthday, Pete!

You are a true American treasure, as much or more than the Grand Canyon or Yosemite National Park.

One of the best concerts I've ever attended was Pete and Arlo singing and playing great music together.

[dana_b]

33. Happy Happy B-Day Pete!!!

Now he's a true patriot!!

Eddie V. had to cancel his appearance. My friend Tom Morello will be there though. He always plays "This Land Is Your Land" at his solo shows (The Nightwatchman) with his musical buddues and then has the fans jump up and down (Pogo-style!) during it. LOTS of fun!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32q0L0SDvkg