[78-L] Three Pete Seeger reviews whjat wouldn't fit in my In The Groove column for May

[Steve Ramm]

Because of Space limitation in May, a few fascinating items – concerning Pete Seeger, a music legend - had to be deleted from my column in the May issue of In The Groove. Because of the timing and importance of these items, I wanted to post my reviews here.
 
I hope you find them interesting to read.
 
Steve Ramm
 
A Folk Legend Turns 90! -  If it wasn’t for folksinger/activist Pete Seeger (along with folklorist John Lomax) we might not be singing many of the home-made songs we all learned as a child and still sing today at folk festivals. Seeger turns 90 on May 3rd and last year I recommended the terrific DVD bio of this living legend. A number of Seeger related audio/video projects have arrived recently but none is as important as the DVD Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963, the first in a new Folk Icons series produced by David Peck’s Reelin’ in the Years company, and now released by Acorn Media. As with the superb Jazz Icons DVDs that I’ve covered before, Peck seeks out rare copies of television appearances recorded outside the US by national television networks. This time it’s the Australian Broadcasting Company to who we give thanks. Seeger began his 10-month world tour in Melbourne and the ABC captured the full two-hour concert with just Seeger, a banjo and a guitar. This was a typical Seeger audience of young and old – 3,000 people in the Town Hall- and the camera captures how they slowly get used to singing along with Pete. The bonus features – along with detailed booklet of notes – add even more. In Sidney, Seeger presented a half-hour show about Lead Belly and included the only three filmed performances of the man who gave us “Goodnight Irene” and other classics. (So we actually get two “folk icons” for the price of one.) Other interviews fill out this fully packed DVD. Essential for the folk music collector. Seeger may actually be better appreciated “down under” than he is here in the US. A small Australian reissue label, Omni Recording Company, has just released Pete Seeger Now, placing the last three Lps that Seeger recorded for Columbia Records - between 1969 and 1971 – on a two-CD set, and adding a previously unreleased anti-war song (transferred from a 45rpm promo). These albums have never been on CD before and show the two major interests that Seeger had the: the war in Vietnam and his love for the environment. These were heavily produced albums and the digital transfers seem off-balance with some tracks having  distorted sound, though his passion is there. (The CD is distributed in the US and should be available on line.). For more traditional Seeger you can turn to the five-disc “box” – American Favorite Ballads – from Smithsonian/Folkways. This set combines the five individual CDs released separately over the last few years and covered here before. Each disc is accompanied by the informative and detailed liner notes from the previous releases and puts all those standards which Pete taught us all in one handy place. Happy Birthday Pete!
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