Pete Seeger

“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.

Pete Seeger - We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert (1963) {2CD Set Columbia C2K 45312 rel 1989}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 560 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 291 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 70 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1963, 1989 CBS Records / Columbia | C2K 45312
Folk / Folk Revival / Political Folk / Traditional Folk

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.

A 2LP set dedicated to the memory of folk and protest song pioneer Pete Seeger and the then young prodigy Bob Dylan. Separately, Pete s traditionalism and Bob s propensity to innovate can sound worlds apart but together they are quite clearly cut from the same cloth. Explore the influence Seeger had and the influence Dylan was preparing on this 40 track retrospective.

Pete Seeger - A Link In The Chain (1996) {2CD Set, Columbia C2K64772 rec 1961-1971}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 650 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 272 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 105 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1961-71, 1996 Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music | C2K 64772
Folk / Folk Revival / Political Folk / Traditional Folk

While the neophyte might be better advised to start with the 20-track 1972 Columbia compilation The World of Pete Seeger, this collection would make a good second purchase to hear the highlights of Seeger's major-label sojourn. Eschewing such favorites as "Little Boxes" (Seeger's sole chart single) and "If I Had a Hammer" (which Seeger co-wrote), but including many other familiar performances (among them "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"), the set is thematically organized into story songs, political songs, biographical songs, and children's songs.