This Machine Surrounds Hate and Destroys it with Love

As the title might imply, this is a post about the late, great Pete Seeger. Born on May 3, 1919, Pete was my elder by 66 years but the songs he shared helped to bridge the gap. In the Beacon Sloop Club, next to the historic river that he loved, Pete would join the gathering of pickers on Thursday nights to encourage and support the musical tradition he loved and embodied. On one night I was lucky enough to join in and play with one of the great American legends.

My story moves fast and is by no means an account of Pete's life or message. But the power of his icon was strong enough to make a 22 year old, Oklahoma boy drive 2,200 miles to shake his hand. Pete was born seven months after the end of WWI and was 20 years old when WWII broke out. After attending Harvard for a short while Pete, soon dropped out and began wandering the country by rail and hitchhiking. It was on March 3, 1940 that Pete met Woody, while folklorist Alan Lomax is attributed to saying that meeting was the "birth of modern folk music." Woody taught Pete how to survive beyond the pale of normal civilization and Pete elaborates beautifully at http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2014/01/28/267488551/american-folk-singer-pete-seeger-dies-at-94. By 1940, the Almanac Singers were featuring both Pete and Woody, playing rallies to dances and supporting unions and spreading the American folk tradition.

After a stint in the Merchant Marines where Pete became known as "the banjo picker", he returned to his musical life and the struggles of his country. With the success of the Weavers, Pete found himself in the national spotlight. The fame was double sided due to the communist paranoia that was sweeping the country and more importantly the FBI and national census board. In 1952 the Weavers went on hiatus, in 1961 Pete was convicted of Contempt of Congress but had began feeling the effects of blacklisting beginning in the early 50's. Subpoenaed by the House of Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, Pete would plead the first amendment stating that "no American should be asked those type of questions." His decision to plead freedom of speech, association and religion would make him stand out as a cantankerous witness that would proudly struggle through the oppressive era.

Through his work at summer camps, birthday parties, and community gatherings, Pete maintained his viability as an American pioneer. While blacklisted he continued to record for Folkways Records. Rainbow Quest was a musical variety show sponsored almost exclusively by the Seeger and aired for only one season in 1967, but featured famous musicians from Johnny Cash and Doc Watson to folk icons such Elizabeth Cotton and Tom Paxton, www.peteseeger.net/videogra.html.

In two days, I traveled from Oklahoma to New York City, stopping to camp in South Carolina. the history of the music was in the Blue Ridge Mountain parkway and the endless winding souther roads. Deep Gap, the home of the late Doc Watson was a righthand turn and 60 miles away, Roscoe Holcomb made the "high lonesome sound" famous out of these woods and the Carter Family had gathered gospel songs from the small and isolated communities of the Appalachians. The tradition that inspired Woody, Pete, Mike and countless other folkies that came and went during the 60's was right here, spreading through the air with the morning fog that wrapped the mountains.

As a child Pete learned music from his father Charles, who later remarried Ruth Crawford Seeger and began traveling the south as a classical showcase. Mike Seeger, Pete's half brother, was born out of this marriage and would later become one of America's great folklorists. The heritage the Seeger family tapped into spoke of tradition and family ties. The songs weren't heard on the radio but were rather passed down from generations and some stretched back to Irish roots and English ballads. The story of Americanizing America is told in the songs of the Appalachians, from the shape-note singing to the African influenced cadences, a beautiful story about American folk is told by the movie Songcatcher.

I didn't travel halfway across the country to get an autograph or photo op. I simply tracked down one of the links between pre-industrial revolution America, who had spent his formative years swapping jokes with Woody Guthrie and became one of the few timeless icons of American Folk music. He wasnt hard to find, there are multiple references to Beacon, NY and the larger Poughkeepsie just to the north. After inquiring at a realtor I found the small town of Beacon and more importantly the fire department. Being a middle class white male probably has it's perks because the firemen were friendly and informative giving me specific directions.

The Seeger house is set on a beautifully lush hilltop where the original cabin Pete built in the 60's still stands. The documentary, Power of Song has a wonderful interview with Daniel Seeger, Pete's son describing their early life without heat or running water. I knocked on the door and his wife Toshi-Aline Ota answered, she politely explained that he was working on a song book and that I should come back later. I spent about three minutes in my car and knocked again. Pete answered and invited me in, we chatted in the kitchen about Woody and the music. A yellow jacket began humming around the kitchen, Pete enticed it onto a wooden spoon while I opened the window. As the wasp flew away Pete told me "anything living deserves to meet it's own end."

We spoke for a few more minutes and he escorted me to the door. Sure, I asked him to play a few tunes and, sure he declined but he invited me to the Sloop Club. The following Thursday I rode the Hudson River Line out of Grand Central Station with my banjo and unrealistic expectations.

Tunes were played and songs were passed around the circle. Pete declined to lead a song, saying he didn't sing anymore and finally it came to me. The gentleman on my right had heard my story and when I took the microphone he suggested "This Land is My Land," and I led the group. Out of the corner of my eye I couldn't tell if he was smiling or grimacing but he led a break and I have to accept that as enough, Pete was 88 at the time. We didn't speak after the jam, I watched him graciously depart from the group and I rode the train home, watching the river he loved slip by. The next year he came out with the album "At 89," I probably didn't play a role in his decision to record another album but maybe he noticed me, maybe I was another fruit of the seeds he scattered.  

Music and life have been compared to water and rightly so. Our lives are short eddies in a flowing stream of living energy, always passing to new areas and influences. The songs of Pete and the mountains which birthed them are streams that connect the old country and to the present. Children are taught "This Land is Your Land" in elementary school, "Skip to My Lou," "The Green Grass Grew All Around" and "Froggie Went A'courtin" are all childhood classics. Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie might not be in the common vernacular but the common vernacular has been molded by Pete and Woody. There are only seven notes in a scale and no matter how hard Katy Perry mixes them they always come out one of the seven. Pete and Woody were brave enough to sing them straight, honestly, bound and freed by the simplicity of the templet. Remember your childhood, remember the tunes that bounce through your subconscious, they are the heritage of our country and the connection to our homelands.