Bill C. Malone
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835104
- eISBN:
- 9781469602653
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807869406_malone
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Few people have heard of Mike Seeger (1933–2009), who is the brother of the far more well-known American folk singers Pete and Peggy Seeger. Seeger's “potentially more inclusive” work did not reach a ...
More
Few people have heard of Mike Seeger (1933–2009), who is the brother of the far more well-known American folk singers Pete and Peggy Seeger. Seeger's “potentially more inclusive” work did not reach a large audience, although musicians as diverse as Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, and his brother Pete Seeger acknowledge his major contribution in preserving and chronicling the roots of American southern music. The multi-talented Mike Seeger was born to musicologists Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger and was a musician and scholar who founded the influential folk group, New Lost City Ramblers. This biography shows how Seeger had a great influence on the folk music scene of the 1950s and 1960s and spent over 50 years preserving and performing the folk music culture of black and white southerners. While not as vocal as his brother Pete Seeger, Mike produced and recorded over 40 albums, giving a voice to the authentic roots music of the American southerners. Seeger termed this brand of music, “music from the true vine,” a country music genre that is now identified as “bluegrass.”Less
Few people have heard of Mike Seeger (1933–2009), who is the brother of the far more well-known American folk singers Pete and Peggy Seeger. Seeger's “potentially more inclusive” work did not reach a large audience, although musicians as diverse as Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, and his brother Pete Seeger acknowledge his major contribution in preserving and chronicling the roots of American southern music. The multi-talented Mike Seeger was born to musicologists Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger and was a musician and scholar who founded the influential folk group, New Lost City Ramblers. This biography shows how Seeger had a great influence on the folk music scene of the 1950s and 1960s and spent over 50 years preserving and performing the folk music culture of black and white southerners. While not as vocal as his brother Pete Seeger, Mike produced and recorded over 40 albums, giving a voice to the authentic roots music of the American southerners. Seeger termed this brand of music, “music from the true vine,” a country music genre that is now identified as “bluegrass.”
Bill C. Malone
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835104
- eISBN:
- 9781469602653
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807869406_malone.5
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter chronicles the prominent role played by the Seeger family in contributing to the propagation of American folk music. Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger were both great exponents of the ...
More
This chapter chronicles the prominent role played by the Seeger family in contributing to the propagation of American folk music. Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger were both great exponents of the vernacular music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, together and separately, made enormous contributions to the documentation of American folk music. Charles was also a prominent member of the Resettlement Administration during the Depression years, which relocated struggling farmers to better agricultural communities where they could be more productive. Mike Seeger possibly got his love of the banjo from Pete, who had a major impact on the American protest folk music scene. Seeger shared the passion his family had for traditional American folk music, but he was, perhaps, aware that he needed to play a distinct role in order to be set apart from his highly illustrious parents, brother, and sister. To begin with, Seeger rejected the formal music instruction that his mother tried to instil in him.Less
This chapter chronicles the prominent role played by the Seeger family in contributing to the propagation of American folk music. Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger were both great exponents of the vernacular music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, together and separately, made enormous contributions to the documentation of American folk music. Charles was also a prominent member of the Resettlement Administration during the Depression years, which relocated struggling farmers to better agricultural communities where they could be more productive. Mike Seeger possibly got his love of the banjo from Pete, who had a major impact on the American protest folk music scene. Seeger shared the passion his family had for traditional American folk music, but he was, perhaps, aware that he needed to play a distinct role in order to be set apart from his highly illustrious parents, brother, and sister. To begin with, Seeger rejected the formal music instruction that his mother tried to instil in him.