“Where’s Pete Seeger – On Stage or upstream?”

Pete Seeger performed at the Cuyahoga Valley Festival in Ohio around 1989. I was asked to introduce him. His “dressing room” was an old barn stall, and I can still recall seeing the neck of his banjo rise up among the pitchforks. I asked him if there was anything he’d like me to say, and he responded: “Do you know what time I’ll get my canoe ride?” Stunned momentarily, I remembered that Pete was enticed to play the festival knowing that a local park naturalist was going to escort him on the upper Cuyahoga river. As I responded I realized that anything I might say on stage was nowhere near as important as his chance to discover Ohio’s reborn river. Pete has a way at making us see what’s really important. I’ll be playing several songs off Seeds: The songs of Pete Seeger Vol 3.