Pete Seeger
Joan Baez, Billy Bragg, Tom Chapin, Judy Collins, Guy Davis, Ani DiFranco, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Steve Earle, Bela Fleck, Michael Franti, Arlo Guthrie, Ben Harper, Emmylou Harris, Richie Havens, Kris Kristofferson, Taj Mahal, Roger McGuinn, John Mellencamp, Tom Paxton, Buffy Sainte Marie, Tommy Sands, Bruce Springsteen, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet, Dar Williams and Pete Seeger himself are among the dozens of notable artists slated to perform during a big birthday bash at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Proceeds from the event that starts at 5 p.m. benefit the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc (www.clearwater.org). Seeger launched the nonprofit environmental organization to help spur awareness of and preserve and protect the Hudson River and its related water bodies.
In addition to the musical extravaganza in New York City, dozens of other celebratory events will be taking place elsewhere. Many bear the name “For Pete’s Sake, Sing,” an idea conceived of by some of Seeger’s Australian fans to encourage folks to simply gather together and sing — much as Pete has been prodding us to do for decades. Proceeds from a number of the events also will be contributed to organizations and causes that Seeger has espoused.
Here’s a glimpse at just a few of the many “For Pete’s Sake, Sing” and other events marking Pete Seeger’s birthday that are taking place over the coming weekend:
• AcousticMusicScene.com’s Glen Roethel and his folk harmony trio Gathering Time, are among a number of artists who will perform a song written or inspired by Pete Seeger during the Folk Music Society of Huntington’s First Saturdays Series concert on Saturday, May 2, at the Congregational Church of Huntington (30 Washington Drive, Centerport, New York) prior to a featured performance by Work O’ The Weavers. (www.fmshyny.org). Proceeds from the concert will be donated to Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc.
• Members of Tribes Hill (www.tribeshill.org), a nonprofit Hudson Valley-based musicians collective, of which Pete Seeger is a lifetime member, pay homage to him by covering each other’s songs and those of other songwriters during a “Tribes Hill Songbook” concert, as part of ArtsWestchester’s “Arts at the X” performance Series on Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Arts Exchange (31 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, New York).
Performing the songs of fellow musicians has long been part of the American folk music tradition… going all the way back to the 1940s, when Seeger was a member of The Almanac Singers with Woody Guthrie, observes Rick Rock, Tribes Hill’s executive director. “It’s a great feeling to hear one of your fellow musicians playing a song you wrote,” says Rock. “You can’t help but feel honored.” He notes that not only are the featured Tribes Hill artists — Anthony da Costa, KJ Denhert, Fred Gillen Jr., Steve Kirkman, Kathleen Pemble and Matt Turk — heirs to Seeger’s musical legacy, several of them have long-time associations with him, having performed and collaborated with Seeger at concerts, festivals, and on various social justice projects. The May 2 concert also is intended to offer a preview of a forthcoming Tribes Hill Songbook that will be dedicated to Seeger.
• A number of organizations in the Ithaca, New York area are joining together to host a pot-luck and singing party at the Small Pavilion in Ithaca’s Stewart Park on Sunday, from noon to 6 p.m.
• As part of its Sunday Morning Platform Series, the Ethical Culture Society of Essex County (www.essexethical.org) hosts a special musical program presented by the Solidarity Singers at 516 Prospect Street in Maplewood, New Jersey.
• Joyful Noise Productions, a project of the nonprofit Spectrum Arts and Education for Peace, has organized a grassroots gathering and sing-along featuring folk songs by Seeger, Arlo Guthrie and others, along with birthday cake and beverages that is slated for Sunday, from 5:30-7 p.m., in the Sheffield Auditorium of the Congregational Church of Old Lyme in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Julia Hikory, a member of the People’s Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle that Seeger helped to found, recently told a writer for The Stonigton Times and other newspapers in Connecticut that Sunday’s event will be “a celebration for all ages.” Noting that “Pete feels that one of his main purposes in life is to get people to sing together,” she said “That’s what inspired us to do something locally, keeping with his spirit, to honor him.”
• The Folk Song Society of Greater Boston (www.fssgb.org) sponsors a free Boston-area singing party on Sunday, from 3-6 p.m., at Doyle’s Café in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.
• The Peace Abbey (www.peaceabbey.org) and Nonviolent Peaceforce sponsor a concert and song circle on Sunday, from 3-6 p.m., at the multi-faith retreat center, 2 North Main Street (Route 16), Sherburn, Massachusetts.
• A number of central Vermont-based musicians will gather at the historic Labor Hall in Barre, Vermont on Sunday at 7 p.m. to perform songs penned by Seeger, as well as traditional songs that Seeger helped to spread on his own or, in the 1950s, with The Weavers. Participating artists include recent Chris Austin Songwriting Contest Winner Carol Hausner, Tom Azarian, Charlie Barasch, Jon Gailmor, Mark Greenberg, Ben Koenig, Donny Osman, Andy Pitt, Jeremy Seeger and Jairo Segueira . In keeping with Seeger’s commitment to singing as a communal activity, the audience will be encouraged to sing along. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Labor Hall’s restoration.
• Northwest Folklife (www.nwfolklife.org).and other Puget Sound area folk music organizations will screen Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jim Brown’s 2007 documentary “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song” on Sunday at 4 p.m. The documentary — which initially aired on PBS television stations as part of the American Masters series of primetime specials delving into the lives, works and creative processes of some of our cultural icons — chronicles Seeger’s life and features archival footage and personal films made by Seeger and his wife, Toshi, interspersed with more recent interviews with him and an array of artists whom he has inspired over the years.
In the evening, a hootenanny of Seeger and Seeger-related songs will be led by nine-piece Seattle band Tom Colwell & the Soutbound Oddyssey at The Historic Admiral Theater, 2343 California Avenue SW in Seattle, Washington. Seeger helped to popularize the word “hootenanny” after visiting the Seattle area in the late 1930s with Woody Guthrie. A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit the Northwest Folklife Festival, for which Seeger performed in 1997. Footage of Pete playing at the festival also will be screened.
• Elsewhere in Washington State, the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship hosts an open mic and Seeger-inspired sing-along on Sunday at 7 p.m., with a $10 suggested donation to benefit the local food bank, while a local chapter of the Green Party holds what it is calling a “For Pete’s Sake, Sing Out” at the Pioneer Memorial Park Clubhouse, 387 East Washington Street in Sequim on Sunday afternoon, from 2:30-4:30 p.m.
• The Dayton International Peace Museum
(www.daytonpeacemuseum.org) in Dayton, Ohio, hosts a free musical tribute featuring a number of local artists and an audience sing-along, in the Kennedy Union Ballroom at the University of Dayton on Sunday, from 2-6 p.m. Birthday cake and punch will be served, and visitors will have an opportunity to view a multimedia exhibit on Pete’s life and works, which will later be mounted at the museum.
• A concert and sing-along songfest featuring longtime Knoxville musicians influenced by the singing and work of Pete Seeger is set for Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Avenue, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Presented by Jubilee Community Arts and Highlander Research and Education Center, the concert will feature Sparky and Rhonda Rucker, Nancy Brennan Strange, The Carawan Family, and Gammon, Horton & Reynolds.
• In Virginia’s capital city, a hootenanny is slated for Sunday, from 6-11 p.m., at The Camel, 1621 West Broad Street, Richmond. The suggested donation is $10, with proceeds going to benefit musicians in need.
In honor of Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday, Smithsonian Folkways, the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, released a five-CD box set this month that features 139 of his timeless classics and two unreleased bonus tracks. Free downloads of “Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep” and “Buffalo Gals” are currently being offered at its website, www.folkways.si.edu, where you also can find an article entitled “Pete Seeger Standing Tall” that appears in Folkways Magazine’s Spring 2009 edition.
Happy Birthday, Pete!
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