Mike Seeger
(August 15, 1933 – August 7, 2009) was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, and dobro.
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MIKE SEEGER TICKETS
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Family and early life
Seeger was born in
New York and grew up in Maryland and Washington D.C. His father,
Charles Louis Seeger Jr., was a composer and pioneering
ethnomusicologist, investigating both American folk and non-Western music. His mother, Ruth, was a
composer.
[2] His eldest half-brother, Charles Seeger III, was a radio astronomer, and his next older half-brother, John Seeger, taught for years at the
Dalton School in Manhattan. His next older half brother is
Pete Seeger. His uncle,
Alan Seeger, a poet, was killed during the
First World War. His sister,
Peggy Seeger, also a well-known folk performer, was married for many years to British folk singer
Ewan MacColl. His sister, singer Penny Seeger, married
John Cohen, a member of Mike's musical group,
New Lost City Ramblers.
[3] Seeger was a self-taught musician who began playing stringed instruments at the age of 18.
The family moved to
Washington D.C. in 1936 after his father's appointment to the music division of the
Resettlement Administration. While in Washington D.C., Ruth Seeger worked closely with
John and
Alan Lomax at the Archive of American Folk Song at the
Library of Congress to preserve and teach American folk music. Ruth Seeger's arrangements and interpretations of American Traditional folk songs in the 1930s, 40s and 50s are well regarded.
Musical career
At about the age of 20, Seeger began collecting songs by traditional musicians on a tape recorder.
Folk musicians such as
Lead Belly,
Woody Guthrie,
John Jacob Niles, and others were frequent guests in the Seeger home.
[4]
In 1958 he co-founded the
New Lost City Ramblers, an
old-time string band in
New York City, during the
Folk Revival. The other founding members included
John Cohen and
Tom Paley. Paley later left the group and was replaced by
Tracy Schwarz. The New Lost City Ramblers directly influenced countless musicians in subsequent years. The Ramblers distinguished themselves by focusing on the traditional playing styles they heard on old
78rpm records of musicians recorded during the 1920s and 1930s.
Seeger received six Grammy nominations and was the recipient of four grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts.
His influence on the folk scene was described by
Bob Dylan in his autobiography,
Chronicles: Volume One
.
A week before his 76th birthday, Seeger died at his home in
Lexington, Virginia on August 7, 2009, after stopping cancer treatment.
[5] [6]
Discography
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1962)
- Mike Seeger
(Vanguard) (1964)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1965)
- Strange Creek Singers
(Arhoolie) (1968)
- Music From True Vine
(Mercury) (1972)
- The Second Annual Farewell Reunion
(1973)
- American Folk Songs for Children
(Rounder) (1977)
- Fresh Oldtime String Band
(Rounder) (1988)
- American Folk Songs for Christmas
(Rounder) (1989)
- Solo: Old Time Music
(Rounder) (1991)
- Animal Folk Songs for Children
(Rounder) (1992)
- Third Annual Farewell Reunion
(Rounder) (1994)
- Way Down in North Carolina
(Rounder) (1996)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1998)
- Retrograss
(Acoustic Disc) (1999)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (2003)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (2007)
- Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
(Rounder) (2007)
- Ry Cooder - My Name Is Buddy
(Nonesuch) (2007)
-
(Consignment) (2007)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (2007)
Recordings with the New Lost City Ramblers
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1958)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1959)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1959)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1960)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1961)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1961)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1962)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1962)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1963)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1963)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1964)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1964)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1968)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1968)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1973)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1975)
- Earth is Earth
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1978)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1978)
- 20th Anniversary Concert, with Elizabeth Cotten, Highwoods String Band, Pete Seeger & the Green Grass Cloggers]
(FLYING FISH (Rounder)) (1978)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1991)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1993)
-
(Smithsonian Folkways) (1997)
- 40 Years of Concert Recordings
(Rounder) (2001)
- 50 Years: Where Do You Come From? Where Do You Go?
(Smithsonian Folkways) (To be released August 25,2008)
References
- Mike Seeger: Musician, Cultural Scholar, and Advocate
- 1911 ''New York Times'' wedding announcement for Charles Louis Seeger and Ruth Crawford Seeger.
- A Vision Shared, Austin Chronicle, weeklywire.com, 18 August 1997. Retrieved on 2 May 2009.
- Mike Seeger: American folk revivalist and historian
- Mike Seeger Cleared Paths, Showed Us The Way
- Folk Music's Mike Seeger Dead