pete seeger

Pete Seeger

Originally put together to collect some recordings I made after Pete's passing in 2014, in honor of his 100th birthday I went back through the LDSB and G&B tracks and added material recorded since then, along with some early stuff. Recording quality goes from very satisfactory for work mixed by Dr. Burns to very poor for stuff I did on my own.

Pete Seeger was among my earliest musical exposures. My parents bonded over a shared folk revival collection that included several of his and the Weavers' records; his collections of children's songs were part of the soundtrack to our house in the early '70s; and I loved it when my dad strummed his limited repertoire culled almost entirely from Weavers records on his 4-string guitar. As I grew up and (re)discovered my folks' old records in the living room cabinet, I was drawn back to Pete's music, again and again. By the end of high school I'd studied 'How To Play the 5-String Banjo,' gotten his autograph, and written "Every little soul's gonna shine along" (from 'Mr. Rabbit') on my banjo head in imitation of the great man's "This machine surrounds fear and forces it to surrender."  I wrote one of my college entrance essays about him.

Pete Seeger was a man of boundless creativity, curiosity, energy, integrity and kindness. He was also my hero. These are some of the songs my friends, family and I play that we learned in whole or part from him and his records, and I hope if you haven't heard some of them before that you seek out his versions, and then sing and play them yourself.

Thanks For Everything, Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger & Covers

Pete Seeger, he never stopped singing.

PETE SEEGER

Wonderful Friends - Pete Seeger And Lorre Wyatt

Pete Seeger--Amazing Grace, Cambridge MA 1980

Yes, another Pete song that's been in my head the past week. Learned from Pete's version on his first live record with Arlo, which I bought was back when I was about 15 and starting to really rediscover the folk that my parents had had around the house when I was really small. It's a great record with a lot of choice cuts. I haven't sung this one in a long time - probably since college, and my 20-yr. reunion is apparently this spring - but the words came when I called for them. I've changed my banjo pattern a bit since then.

Yesterday's tune was pretty naked and bittersweet, so another way to celebrate Pete's legacy is just to have a good time. And, though the words make this more than just a good time, an old-time jam is a good way to help these words have a good time. Layered banjos, guitar, uke, washboard, tub bass. This song surrounds hate, and forces it to surrender.

Well May The World Go

Peter "Pete" Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers.

Pete Seeger - "Down By The Riverside"

Justin Deremo (https://soundcloud.com/ajiav)is an awesome musician from Joplin, MO who works primarily in electronic music but has a keen ear for using acoustic instrumentation, both his own and sampled, in his compositions. Historically i haven't been a huge listener of electronica but I've found his music to appeal to me in a lot of the ways that some folk musics do, and since several people who follow me on here also follow Justin, I think I'm not alone in that.

When I completed The Water Is Wide several years ago, I thought it'd be fun to get a dub version done. I sent Justin my tracks - including a few drum tracks I wound up not using - and he had this back in a few days. True to form the composition is adjusted, elements are separated out and focused on. It's not exactly dub - for one thing, my rattley tub bass couldn't be cranked up THAT loud - but it is a creative re-imagining of my arrangements that sounds brilliant on headphones.

Justin's been awfully busy with life lately but his page is always worth a visit: https://soundcloud.com/ajiav

2008.

Picture: In 2012 I built a miniature bog garden in my backyard. Pitcher plant flowers are awesome. This pic's from spring 2013 but this plant has 3 of thee blooms coming this year.

The Water Is Wide (Justin Deremo remix)

I had the finished, relatively big-band collaborative version of this up for a while but had never posted the solo banjo version. Done in one take, first take, while drinking something or other beery, and then added to with my buddies Primus and Mike, though Mike (who did the drums) complained a bit about the irregular rhythm. I'll get the 'finished' (still very loose) version up again sometime in case you missed it last time around, but in the meantime I have a soft spot for this loopy little arrangement & hope you enjoy it too. . Summer 2012.

Pic: yes, it looks like a firehouse, but it's the soon-to-be-home of Five Saints Distilling. I visited the facility (in Norristown PA) recently and the owner's got a great vision for the property, and I trust that his whiskey is going to be top-notch (though I still prefer beer.)

Rye Whiskey (solo)

The World of Pete Seeger

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? (Live)

The Sinking of the Reuben James

Pete Seeger: A Link In The Chain

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy (Live)

Hobo's Lullaby

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There  Is a Season) (Live)

Playlist: The Very Best Of Pete Seeger

John Henry (Live)

Circles & Seasons

Garden Song

I Can See a New Day (Live)

The Bells of Rhymney (Live)

Pete Seeger loves to quote Alfred North Whitehead's 1916 lecture on the importance of nurturing "trained intelligence" to foster social progress. This link goes to the speech: https://webspace.utexas.edu/hcleaver/www/330T/350kPEEwhiteheadaimstable.pdf

Pete Seeger on the Merits of "Trained Intelligence"

Pete Seeger - Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

When I was 5, inspired by my pop's tenor guitar, I begged my parents for a ukelele, and got one. When I was 35, I put the uke - now down to 3 strings and abridge that looks like it's going to pop off anyday - together with my dad's guitar, my guitar, and a little mandolin for an experiment in arranging a folk tune to a reggae-ish beat. Washtub bass rounds out the bottom, and I bought a cheap melodica specifically to use on the lead. Learned of curse from Pete Seeger, but more immediately inspired by John Gorka's lovely version x Nora Dean's 'Barb Wire.'

The Water Is Wide

What Now My Love

Pete Seeger - We Shall Not Be Moved

As 2013 dawned, the US Senate passed a measure to avoid the "fiscal cliff." We find out how Europe is covering the political struggle over the US economy. Locksmiths in Pamplona, Spain push back on austerity by refusing to change locks on properties being foreclosed on by banks. We remember Chilean activist and singer Victor Jara. Those stories and more, Tuesday on The World.

Folk Singer Pete Seeger on the Death and Legacy of Chile's Victor Jara

Sing Out With Pete!

The Hammer Song

Broadsides: Songs and Ballads

We Shall Overcome

Final mix  1.1

I muck about in the basement on a variety of instruments, a 4 track, and a pint of homebrew, trying not to wake the wife & kids. Starting point is traditional old-time music and Folk Revival fare, ending point is yet to be determined.

Always up for collaborating! A huge thank you to the many musicians who've let me wreck their tracks over the past few years. 

Since 2014 I've mostly been working alongside Jeff Burns, aka Squirrel Jam Zombie Banjo, in our imaginatively named project Greenwood & Burns:
https://soundcloud.com/greenwood-burns
Our debut album, Modern Sounds in Old-Time Music, and our guest-filled holiday spectacular, at Bandcamp: https://greenwoodburns.bandcamp.com/