Pete Seeger

Description: Singer/Songwriter, Americana

Comparisons: Pete Seeger can be most closely compared to his compatriot Woody Guthrie, and to other later topical songwriters like Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan.

Trivia Fact: Whereas his bandmate Woody Guthrie had carved in his guitar, "This machine kills fascists," Pete Seeger inscribed on his banjo: "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender."

Starter CDs: If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle (Smithsonian Folkways, 1998). Which Side Are You On? (Acrobat, 2003). The Essential Pete Seeger (Sony, 2005).

Quote from Pete Seeger: "Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple."

Pete Seeger Biography: Peter Seeger was born in May, 1919, in New York City. His father, Charlie, was a musicologist, and both of his siblings, Mike and Peggy, also became musicians (Mike Seeger was a founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers).

Pete spent two years studying Journalism at Harvard University before dropping out to perform music. During the late 1930s, he met Woody Guthrie at a benefit concert for migrant workers, which was inspired by the novel Grapes of Wrath.

The two found they had plenty in common both musically and ideologically, and they soon formed a group that came to be known famously as the Almanac Singers.

Pete was also a founding member of the Weavers, who enjoyed extensive success until being blacklisted for being Communists during the McCarthy Era. Seeger himself refused to testify in the McCarthy hearings, citing that it would violate his first ammendment rights.

In the late 1950s, Seeger began his solo career. He became well-known as a topical songwriter and activist Folksinger. He reworked the African-American spiritual to popularize "We Shall Overcome," and also penned "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "If I Had a Hammer," which have all become anthems for peace movements and civil rights.

Seeger has released dozens of records during the course of his extensive and inspiring career, and has received the Kennedy Center Honor Award, National Medal of Arts, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. He continues to perform with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger.
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