May 3 is Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday, and you’re invited to his party. It’s at Madison Square Garden, and helping Pete blow out the candles will be Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Kate & Anna McGarrigle and, I’m sure, some unadvertised others.
You don’t have to bring Pete a present-he’s got pretty much everything he needs right now-but you do have to buy a ticket. Tickets range in price from $19.19 (Pete’s birth year) to $250, but most are priced at $90, in honor of his milestone. All proceeds (not all profits, all proceeds) from ticket sales go directly to Pete’s favorite cause, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. Note also that, if you’ve never been a member of the Clearwater organization, your ticket purchase also entitles you to a one-year membership. Tickets are available here, right now. There are also some special, high-priced ticket options available that include all kinds of special perks. For those of you that haven’t given back your bonus money yet, there’s hardly a better use for it. Look here for more info.
The Clearwater is a 106-foot sailboat modeled after the 18th and 19th century Dutch sloops built to sail the Hudson River, and it serves not only as a working vessel, but as a symbol of how dedicated people can protect and preserve a fragile and valuable ecosystem. This was Pete Seeger’s vision when he inspired the project in 1966, and it will be his legacy for many generations to come. Read all about it here, and, if you’d like to contribute, you can do so here.
Here’s a little video from the Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival Festival 2008. Learn a bit about the project, listen to some good music, and please, help out if you can.
Harry's Music 
March 25, 2009 at 2:37 pm |
For many us musicians who began playing folk music during what is often referred to as the ‘Second Folk Scare” just prior to the Beatles but post Elvis, Pete Seeger represents the Everyman even more than Bob Dylan. I remember borrowing many of his Folkways LPs from our publlic library and having one of his classic folk songbooks from Oak Publications (it’s still around somewhere) that led me to the standards of campfire sing-arounds and the roots of Americana. What I liked was that his voice was average, maybe even BAD. I could sing like that! Maybe better! He certainly made it safe for a whole generation of singers to try out their pipes on the lagacy of tunes left us by history. As we all kept digging, we realized there was so much more out there and so many more voices, good and ‘bad’ (which began sounding not so bad).
In a few minutes I’m heading out to a n hour presentation by my good friends, The Dady Brothers (www.dadybros.com) who do a great tribute to Pete that brother Joe Dady wrote ten years ago, ‘The Man With The Banjo’. It’s on their CD “Straight From The Heart” available at their website. Joe sent a copy to Pete back when they releqased it and got a nice thank you note back signed by the man himself. Today’s show is all about influences. {ete’s a big one on us all, whether we know it or not! Don’t you know, I think I’ll request that they play it today!