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Monday Special for July 14, 2008
8:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Today's Highlight: Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing?
Not only has Pete Seeger done more to popularize American folk music than any other musician, he's composed songs that have become folk standards: "If I Had a Hammer," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" to name just a few. His work has inspired countless musicians — from Joan Baez and Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and the Dixie Chicks — and his political and environmental activism have galvanized generations of admirers.
Peter Seeger was born on May 3, 1919, to Charles and Constance Seeger, and music was essential — his father was a professor of musicology and his mother, a classical violinist. By the time he was 20, Seeger played the ukulele, guitar and banjo. His first real job was assisting folklorist Alan Lomax with cataloging traditional music at the Library of Congress.
Seeger's commitment to American folk music is rivaled only by his commitment to using music for social change. Throughout the 1940s, he was singing topical and union songs. He began with Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers, and then in the '50s joined the Weavers, a popular folk quartet, whose recording of "Goodnight Irene" became the number-one selling song of 1950. But at the height of their popularity, the group was blacklisted and put under FBI surveillance for their politics, forcing Seeger to spend much of the '50s battling HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) for his right to sing.
In the 1960s, folksongs — Seeger's civil rights and anti-war protest songs — spoke to a new generation of fans. Then he turned his attention to environmental causes, such as cleaning up the Hudson River, with the Sloop Clearwater. He was green before "green" was cool.
Today at age 89, Pete Seeger still performs on occasion, adding to his many accolades, which include a 1993 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, a 1994 Presidential Medal of the Arts and in 1996, an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As of April 2008, some 18,000 people had signed a petition to nominate Seeger for a Nobel Peace Prize.
A new one-hour music special or music documentary program each week. From local and national producers.
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