Mike Seeger
Born into one of the first families of American folk music, it was probably inevitable that Mike Seeger would become a musician and folklorist. His father and mother, Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, assisted John and Alan Lomax at the Archive of Folk Song in the Library of Congress. Mike's half-brother, Pete Seeger, performed in both the Almanac Singers and the Weavers, while his sister Peggy Seeger was highly regarded in traditional music circles. There was little surprise, then, when Mike Seeger, at the age of 25, joined Tom Paley and John Cohen to form the New Lost City Ramblers.
It is perhaps ironic that a traditional performer like Seeger was born in New York City to a middle-class family. Born on August 15, 1933, he began playing the autoharp at the age of 12. Soon, he also began playing the banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, mouth harp, mandolin, and dobro. His parents brought music home from the Library of Congress. "They started letting me play field recordings when I was six or seven," Seeger told Dirty Linen. "These were aluminum records that you played with cactus needles." He was also influenced by the African-American singer/guitarist Elizabeth Cotton, who lived in the Seeger home for five years.
In the early '50s, Seeger began to conduct his own field recordings and perform at square dances in the Washington, D.C., area with his sister Peggy. Because he was a conscientious objector, he was assigned work in a hospital, and during this time formed a band with Hazel Dickens and Bob Baker. In 1958, he helped form the New Lost City Ramblers, a band that specialized in performing string band music from the 1920s and 1930s. While the band never gained the exposure of folk revival bands like the Kingston Trio, the group's commitment to accurately reproducing traditional music proved significant. "The Ramblers' influence on generations of young musicians who have followed in their footsteps," wrote Randy Pitts in Music Hound Folk, "is incalculable."
In 1962, when Tracy Schwarz replaced Paley in the Ramblers, Seeger became involved in a number of solo projects. He recorded Mike Seeger for Vanguard in 1964 and Tipple, Loom & Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the South for Folkways in 1965. In the late '60s, Seeger, Dickens, Alice Gerrard, and Lamar Grier formed the Strange Creek Singers (Arhoolie released Strange Creek Singers: Get Acquainted Waltz in 1975, reissued in 1997). He also became involved in the Newport Folk Festival and, in 1970, became the director of the Smithsonian Folklife Company. In 1970, he married Gerrard, though they later divorced.
Seeger continued to involve himself in a multitude of projects. Beginning in the 1970s, he recorded a string of albums for Rounder, and he continued to compile scholarly projects such as Southern Banjo Sounds (1998) and True Vine (2003) -- both for Smithsonian Folkways. He was nominated for three Grammys, won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1984, received the Rex Foundation's Ralph Gleason Award in 1995, and an Award of Merit from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) the same year. "I feel there's just as much fun in old-time music as there's ever been," Seeger told Dirty Linen in 1997. "People ask me, don't you get tired of it? And some people do, but I think I could have three more lifetimes and not get tired of it." Seeger's 2007 album Early Southern Guitar Sounds was released on Smithsonian Folkways.
© Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr. /TiVo
Artistas semelhantes
Discografia
13 álbum(ns) • Ordenado por Mais vendidos
-
Way Down In North Carolina
Folk - Lançado por Rounder em 04/06/1996
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Early Southern Guitar Styles
Folk - Lançado por Smithsonian Folkways Recordings em 11/09/2007
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Folk Songs For Christmas
Mike Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Penny Seeger
Christmas Music - Lançado por Rounder em 01/01/1989
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Third Annual Farewell Reunion
Folk - Lançado por Rounder em 06/09/1994
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fly Down Little Bird
Folk - Lançado por Appleseed em 21/03/2011
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Folk Songs For Children
Children - Lançado por Rounder em 01/01/1977
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Animal Folk Songs For Children
Mike Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Barbara Seeger, Penny Seeger
Children - Lançado por Rounder em 01/11/1992
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mike Seeger (Original Album)
Pop - Lançado por Folk, Blues and Beyound em 01/01/2014
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Solo - Oldtime Country Music
Folk - Lançado por Rounder em 01/01/1962
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
American Play Parties
Pete Seeger, Mike Seeger, Rev. Larry Eisenberg
Children - Lançado por Folkways Records em 01/01/1959
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
We Live a Long Long Time
Pop - Lançado por Flipcock Records em 01/02/2022
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leather Breeches
Pop - Lançado por Sunset Recordings em 01/11/2021
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Don't Let Your Deal Go Down
Pop - Lançado por Cowboy Tunes em 01/03/2022
Qualidade de CD de 16 bits 44.1 kHz - Stereo