PETE SEEGER & FRIENDS

“SEEDS: THE SONGS OF PETE SEEGER, VOLUME 3”

Appleseed Records  APR CD 1072  •  2-CD SET

From the Press Release by Alan Edwards of Appleseed Records

Double CD includes Pete’s first new disc since 1996 plus 2nd disc of new recordings of Seeger material by Janis Ian, Tom Paxton, Natalie Merchant & more.  Features “Bring Them Home” with guests Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco & Steve Earle.

For more than 60 of his 84 years, Pete Seeger has been the musical voice of the world’s conscience. While cultures still collide, while inequality still flourishes, while the earth, air and waterways fill with pollution, the iconic songwriter, musician and political activist just can’t keep from singing out in protest. He knows it is his duty and his guiding principle: “Participation! It’s what all my work has been about.” Seeger’s commitment to his life’s work has been recognized by a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Award, the Presidential Medal of the Arts and even induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

 On September 23, 2003 the independent label Appleseed Recordings issued the double-CD Seeds: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Volume 3, the final set in its trilogy of releases celebrating Seeger’s music and its globally warming effects. Appleseed’s previous multi-artist Seeger celebrations – 1998’s 2-CD Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 1, and If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2, released in 2001 – have been acclaimed as modern folk classics and reaffirmed Seeger’s lasting impact as songwriter, artist, activist, and inspiration to fellow musicians and listeners alike.

“No other living musician has been at the forefront of more social, political and history changing events,” says Appleseed founder Jim Musselman, who initiated the series and served as its executive producer. “It took a trilogy encompassing five CDs to even begin to touch the depth and breadth of the effect of his music around the world.”

Disc one of Seeds, “Pete & Friends,” contains 14 recent performances by Pete of songs that he penned, adapted or adopted, including some recent ones not previously recorded (“Trouble at the Bottom,” “Visions of Children,” “Sower of Seeds,” and “Take It from Dr. King”). On Pete’s first new release since 1996’s Grammy-winning Pete, he performs solo, with family (grandson and frequent concert accompanist Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and half-sister Peggy Seeger), and musical friends (including solo artists Arlo Guthrie, Anne Hills, and Tom Pacheco).

The second disc presents exclusive recordings of Seeger’s songs by a diverse roster of highly respected folk artists. Janis Ian, Tom Paxton, Natalie Merchant, Holly Near and Pete’s fellow ex-Weaver Ronnie Gilbert, Dick Gaughan (“the Scottish Woody Guthrie”), singer-songwriter and Emmy nominated actress Michele Greene and others explore some of the lesser-known entries in the Seeger repertoire. The package includes a 28-page booklet with extensive liner notes by Pete on the inspiration and history of each song and by Musselman, who has spent countless hours with Seeger in creating the entire three-volume collection.

Perhaps the most controversial composition on Seeds is “Bring Them Home (If You Love Your Uncle Sam),” an update of one of Seeger’s anti-Vietnam songs that he now applies to the invasion of Iraq. Joined by guest vocalists and fellow activists Billy Bragg, Ani DiFranco and Steve Earle, Pete decries blind jingoistic patriotism while rejoicing in America’s freedom of speech and thought. Ironically, Seeger’s own personal freedoms were challenged during the McCarthy era of the early ’50s, when his refusal to testify about his political affiliations before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) led to a contempt of Congress citation, trial, conviction, and year-long jail term (never served and eventually thrown out of court).

“Bring Them Home” was one of anti-war three songs Pete recorded this spring as American bombs were falling on Baghdad; “The Dove” and “Flowers of Peace” are also included on the “Pete & Friends” disc.

News of the modernized version of “Bring Them Home” triggered a wave of hate mail attacking Seeger’s “disloyalty” to the current administration’s foreign policies, although the song has been released in solidarity with the U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and their families, who have made it clear that it’s time to come home. “We feel that the song and what Pete says in it have an important message during this time of backlash against entertainers like Tim Robbins and the Dixie Chicks who have simply expressed their views, which is what is needed in a democracy,” Musselman explains. “Pete is someone who has always stood up for the First Amendment.”

Although peace and understanding are the underlying themes of many of Seeger’s songs on Seeds, its preceding volumes and throughout his repertoire, his subject matter here also ranges from the seasonal (“Maple Syrup Time”), to the somber (a version of the martyred Chilean musician  Victor Jara’s “Estadio Chile”) to the wonderfully silly (“English is Cuh-ray-zee”). Seeds contains a live version of Pete and his audience singing “Over the Rainbow,” as well as a collaboration between the song’s lyricist, E.Y. “Yip” Harburg, and Seeger on “Odds On Favorite.” Disc one closes with the tranquil “Sailing Down My Golden River,” in which Pete’s vocal is backed by an orchestra arranged by noted film-scorer Michael Kamen with creative input from Pink Floyd’s leader/guitarist David Gilmour.

Sprinkled throughout Seeds are several brief spoken comments by Pete that emphasize his philosophy of life: everyone can make a difference in the world and has the right and the duty to do so.

Appleseed Recordings inaugurated its Seeger trilogy in 1998 with the two-CD Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 1, followed by If I Had a Song: The Songs of Pete Seeger, Vol. 2, in 2001.  The discs feature performances by Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls, Arlo Guthrie, Donovan, Judy Collins, Roger McGuinn, actor-activist Tim Robbins, author Studs Terkel, and an awesome representation of the modern folk pantheon. Overall, nearly 450 musicians have participated in Appleseed’s Seeger series, for which 85 songs have been exclusively recorded and produced. Pete himself has appeared on various Appleseed CDs, including a duet with Arlo Guthrie on a Woody Guthrie/Pete Seeger song on the multi-artist Spain in My Heart: Songs of the Spanish Civil War, which is being released simultaneously with Seeds.

The earlier volumes of The Songs of Pete Seeger have made a substantial musical and political impact. From Volume 1, Bruce Springsteen’s rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” which Seeger adapted into a civil rights anthem, was used as the soundtrack to a post-9/11 video montage of terrorism and self-sacrifice in New York City assembled by NBC-TV and aired for a week on the nightly national news. NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw called Springsteen’s recording “an important anthem of hope for these troubled times.” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” recorded by Irish singers Tommy Sands, Delores Keane, Bosnian cellist Vedran Smailovic and a chorus of Catholic and Protestant Irish children, was played daily outside the peace negotiations between Northern Ireland and England, and Minister of Parliament John Hume called it “a vital bridge of hope and healing between two sides.” Steve Earle’s grim version of “Walking Down Death Row” (from Volume 2) has been used by several organizations opposing the death penalty. The first two Seeger sets have generated close to $100,000 for various charities.

About Pete Seeger

Born in 1919 to musicologist Dr. Charles Seeger and concert violinist Constance Edson Seeger, Pete, while in his teens, developed an interest in music and journalism, crafts he would intertwine throughout his career. A Harvard University dropout (he was in the same class as John F. Kennedy), Seeger met, traveled and performed with the great topical folksong writer Woody Guthrie in 1940, inspiring Pete to start writing his own songs. Dedicating himself to “the music of the people,” Seeger formed the politically oriented Almanac Singers in 1941 with Guthrie and other musicians before Seeger was drafted into the Army in 1942 and sent to the Pacific.

After the war, Seeger resumed his career as performer and song collector, helping to found the still-existent Sing Out! magazine. In 1948, Seeger formed The Weavers with Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, and within three years the group had sold four million records. It embedded Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” in American culture, and its version of Leadbelly’s “Goodnight, Irene” topped the charts for six months. Blacklisted during the McCarthy era, the group disbanded in 1953 (although they reunited periodically), but Seeger continued to record and perform, despite being informally banned from most TV and radio shows and many concert stages for the next 17 years. When the “folk boom” of the early 1960s exploded, performers such as the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul and Mary and the Limelighters actually had hits with Seeger-written songs “If I Had a Hammer” and “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” As folk turned to rock in the mid-’60s, The Byrds brought Seeger to a young, electrified audience with their versions of his “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and “Bells of Rhymney.”

Meanwhile, Seeger continued to travel the campus and international circuit. From the civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama, and Washington, DC, with Dr. Martin Luther King to anti-war demonstrations around the country, Pete and his banjo have been at the forefront of many social justice causes here and abroad. He has written songs for and participated in the labor and environmental movements and founded the Clearwater organization to call attention to the pollution of New York’s Hudson River and other American waterways.

“Pete, or his music, has been there through almost every major social movement in the last 50 years,” says Musselman admiringly.

Seeger and his wife of 60 years, Toshi Ohta Seeger, live in a log cabin in New York State that they built using instructions from library books. Pete’s ego-free spirit of questing intelligence, thoughtful reaction, and inclusive, inspiring performance has influenced people around the world to become involved in changing the societies around them. Seeds and its preceding volumes are preserving that spirit for current and future generations.