Peter Seeger (born May 3, 1919) almost universally known as "Pete Seeger", is a folk singer and political activist. … He is perhaps best known today as the author or co-author of the songs "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Turn, Turn, Turn", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and which are still sung all over the world…
We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert shows that Pete Seeger was at his apex as a performer and as an influential figure in the surging folk movement when John Hammond turned on the Columbia Records tape machine to capture this performance. Out flowed stories, traditional songs, covers of songs by new songwriters like Bob Dylan, and lots more. Seeger was perfectly in tune with his audience as well, and in the acoustic wonder of the hall, the harmonies were well captured. Columbia cut the tape down to a single disc in 1963, but this reissue, running over two hours on compact discs, presents the full concert for the first time. Anyone wondering what it is that has put Seeger at the forefront of folk music for the better part of his life need only hear this to understand.
One of the original protest folk singers of our time Pete Segger sadly died on 28th Jan 2014 (just before this release). Pete Seeger was an American folk singer and a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940's, he also had a string of hits during the 1950's as a member of The Weavers. In the 1960's, he re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament, civil rights, counterculture and environmental causes.
“While [Pete] Seeger often found and adapted old songs for new situations, he also penned a fair number of new folk songs for use during the folk revival of the mid-20th century. Among them, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” was a lament on cycles of violence that take many to war and then to the grave… To pay tribute to Seeger, the Kronos Quartet enlisted the voices of Sam Amidon, Aoife O’Donovan, and others to tell the tale in a sort of relay, with a new voice for every verse. The result feels like the song is posing a question that a community ponders, rather than being the rumination of a single singer. Indeed, in these challenging and often troubling times, many of us find ourselves wondering ‘when we will ever learn.'”
Targeted by the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee, blacklisted, and under indictment for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about his political beliefs, Pete Seeger persevered, traveling throughout North America and performing "community concerts" in schools and local venues. This 1960 concert at Bowdoin College in Maine captures the mood of the time and the enormity of Seeger's talent as a performer, song leader, and social activist. The 2-CD set presents the entire concert, recorded with extraordinary fidelity by the campus radio station.
The album features Bruce's personal interpretations of thirteen traditional songs, all of them associated with the legendary guiding light of American folk music, Pete Seeger, for whom the album is named. Speaking of the origins of the new music, Springsteen said, "So much of my writing, particularly when I write acoustically, comes straight out of the folk tradition. Making this album was creatively liberating because I have a love of all those different roots sounds… they can conjure up a world with just a few notes and a few words."