PETE SEEGER
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CDnow's Country/Folk section!
But the current patriarch of folk singing is Pete Seeger. A Harvardman who quit college to wander through the country collecting songs. Seeger has sung at least 50 LP albums. In 1949 he organized a group called the Weavers that won a tall reputation for quadripartite purity. Seeger commends so much respect among folk singers that the only criticism ever leveled against him (Except by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which cited him for contempt of Congress some years ago when he refused to answer their questions about his performances before Communist-line groups. He was finally convicted in 1961, but last May the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the decision. While the case was under review, Joan Baez dedicated a song to Seeger in every concert she gave. Folk singing has always been closely allied with social protest and liberal politics. "There's never been a good Republican folk singer," says Joan.) is that he can't carry a tune. But that gives him the seal of authenticity. His voice sounds as if a cornhusk were stuck in this throat."JOAN BAEZ -- Folk Singing: Sybil with guitar," TIME Magazine, Nov 23, 1962
PETE SEEGER:REPORT FROM GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI: A SINGING MOVEMENT
I was three days in Greenwood this July lending some small support to the Negro voter-registration drive down there. Sang in a small Baptist church, at a large NAACP meeting, and out in an open field. The last was a songfest also attended by Theodore Bikel, Bob Dylan and several hundred of the most enthusiastic freedom fighters and singers one could imagine. All ages.
Pete Seeger, The Incompleat Folksinger, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1972, p. 247; originally published in Broadside Magazine, No. 30, Aug 1963.
"WE SHALL OVERCOME" -- The Complete CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT, June 8, 1963" (COLUMBIA CL2101/CS8901, 1963; CD re-issue C2K 45312, 1989):
"BROADSIDE BALLADS -- Vol. 2" (Broadside Records 302, Jan 1965):