Happy Birthday Pete Seeger!

Pete Seeger is 86 today. One of the first and most consistently political popular folk musicians of the modern era, Seeger worked with Alan Lomax collecting folk music traditions throughout the U.S. South before serving in the Army in the South Pacific during World War II. His ongoing politicism caused him to be blacklisted while performing with the Weavers. He wrote songs such as Turn, Turn, Turn and Where Have All the Flowers Gone that are part of the lexicon of the folk revival, not to mention songs that he popularized by artists including Woody Guthrie and the unknown musicians in barns and on back porches creating a uniquely American sound by combining the sounds of a thousand foreign homelands. I personally grew up listening to Seeger’s deep catalog of albums (or, more appropriately, “records”) of folk music for children. Today, Seeger remains politically active and, while his schedule has slowed, he is still making music. His legacy is alive and well in his grandson, Tao Rodriguez Seeger, who is part of The Mammals.