Pete Seeger (1919–2014)

If I Had A Hammer 1:53
Goodnight Irene 3:22
Barbara Allen (Live) 4:29
Talking Union 2:57
Wimoweh (Mbube) (Live) 1:46
John Henry (Live) 4:10
Little Boxes (Live) 1:51
Michael Row The Boat Ashore (Live) 2:16
This Land Is Your Land (Live) 3:00
Guantanamera (Live) 4:37
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? 2:02
Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) (Live) 3:09
The Bells Of Rhymney (Live) 5:12
Waist Deep In The Big Muddy 2:54
We Shall Overcome (Live) 4:40… (más)

It was so good to hear the voice and thoughts of this iconic singer and activist. He shared a bit of his personal story, which I knew nothing about, and touched on so many subjects that I had known or shared. He often gives credit to others who have helped him during his life, e.g.: The Smothers Brothers who took a risk and insisted on having the blacklisted Pete sing on their show without editing. In consequence, their TV show was shut down. The writer of the song 'Tsimme' and his hopes for Jewish/Palestinian open dialog.
However, based on current awareness of racial bias, Pete's spur-of-the-moment comments fall short in a few places. Most notably was his talk about the creation of the Cherokee alphabet by Sequoyah, which ended with "and of course, when we discovered California and the redwoods, they were named after him, which is why he is famous." And the mention of the Cherokee Trail of Tears, which he had to keep guessing at the numbers of Cherokee involved and dead, and which ended with a white man "saving" a Cherokee woman & child from deportation. I know his point was that the actions of just common people can be important, but it ended feeling like the Cherokee were without agency. His talk about the banjo also seemed to focus on how the white peopel developed it's musicality and brought the instrument to prominence after they learned about it from the slaves (who, apparently, promptly stopped playing it)
The edition I listened to could benefit from some sound editing: sometimes I could barely hear and other times (especially when the title was announced by someone) it was too loud. Other than that, the mix of talk, instruments, and singing was generally fine.… (más)