Seeger, a long-time friend, and great artist.. His mother, Ruth Crawford
Seeger, is now acknowledged to be one of America's foremost composers,
her own works finally breaking the deeply sexist barrier in the field of
'classical' music, as all others. And his and the Ramblers role at the
Ash Grove, while mentioned below, was profound, complicated and
deserving of something I'll try to write, as time allows.
Ed
http://www.folkworks.org/content/view/36107/155/
Mike Seeger (1933 - 2009)
By Peter Feldmann
After a long struggle with cancer, Mike Seeger died peacefully last Friday,
August 7th, in his Lexington, Virginia home, surrounded by his wife, family,
and friends.
Best known perhaps for his role as co-founder of the music group The New
Lost City Ramblers, Mike devoted his life and career to performing,
collecting, and teaching, and disseminating the music of rural Appalachian
America to a vast throng of friends, students, and admirers. Born in NYC in
1933 to Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger, Mike grew up in Washington DC and
its suburbs. Along with the Lomax's, the Seeger's could be considered among
the first families of the American folk music revival. His father, Charles,
beginning his career as a musicologist, once recounted that he'd tired of
studying European classical music, as he realized that this segment
comprised just a small amount of the world's musical output. Shifting his
attention to folk and ethnic musics from around the world, his studies
formed the basis of what we now call ethnomusicology. Mike's mother, Ruth,
was an accomplished pianist and music arranger, transcribing the field
recordings of such collecting luminaries as John and Alan Lomax for
publication via the Library of Congress.
Mike spent long hours listening to constant repetitions of collected folk
songs that his mother was compiling for publication, many from fragile
aluminum discs that were used by the field collectors of that day. He began
playing guitar, banjo, and fiddle for himself, and soon added mandolin,
spoons, harmonica (or mouth-harp), quills (panpipes), autoharp and other
instruments to his arsenal of musical tools. He developed his own, unique
singing style, and could turn a phrase in an ancient Elizabethan ballad as
well as any of the traditional mountain singers he studied. His innate
musicianship was professionally honed at Julliard in New York City, where he
was introduced to many musical concepts that served him well throughout his
life. Learning the techniques of sound recording at a nearby radio station,
Mike soon took off with his own recorder and microphones to collect songs on
his own at early country music festivals, in hillbilly bars and clubs, and
along secluded roads and trails winding through the mountains of Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and West Virginia.
To understand the contribution that Mike and his collaborators in the New
Lost City Ramblers (John Cohen, Tom Paley, and Tracy Schwarz) made to the
traditional music community, one needs to understand the situation in the
USA in 1958, the year the Ramblers were founded. In general, folk songs were
generally regarded as quaint, sometimes beautiful, but backward relics of an
agricultural past; something to be sung to children at bedtime, perhaps, or
something to be "improved" and "beautified" in a classical setting by such
artists as Richard Dyer Bennet, John Dowland, et al, in a manner similar to
the German lieder or French art songs. Some attempts at popularizing such
music were made by groups such as the Weavers and the Kingston Trio, but
no one had attempted to perform the music in a concert setting in its
native,
traditional styles. Mike's father, Charles, was one of the pioneers of the
idea of studying traditional musics by performance, but generally applied
this concept to ethnic music outside US borders.
The Ramblers changed all this with their efforts to study and perform the
music as it was originally played by their folk sources, whether early field
or commercial 78 RPM recordings, or the country artists themselves.
Making trips out into the countryside, they discovered that many musicians
who had recorded some of the classic pieces of string band music for
record companies in the 1920s and 30s were still alive and picking!
Not only did Mike and the others study and document their musicianship,
but they invited these performers for visits to the cities up North and out
West for joint performances with their group. A support group, The Friends
Of Old Time Music, was set up in New York by Mike, John, and their friend
Ralph Rinzler, who were soon bringing performers such as Clarence
Ashley, Dock Boggs, and Elizabeth Cotton to the Big Apple for concerts.
While re-discovering the talents of veteran performer Tom Ashley, they
were pleasantly surprised to find a young guitar player named Arthel
"Doc" Watson, who was quickly enrolled in a band with Ashley and others
for shows in NY. Mike and the Ramblers also began road trips across the
country, performing in clubs, coffee houses, and college campuses.
Interest in the more traditional-sounding music picked up dramatically,
fueled in large part by the NCLR's efforts. Meeting Ed Pearl in Los Angeles,
they quickly assumed the role of music advisers to his Hollywood club The
Ash Grove, sending a wealth of traditional performers out West, often for
month-long forays to LA, Berkeley, Seattle, and other music centers.
Back in New York City, Mike and the Ramblers soon forged a working
relationship with Moses Asch, owner of Folkways Records. The result: a
stream of dozens of wonderful recordings by the Ramblers themselves, and of
field recordings made by a huge spectrum of traditional performers from
around the country. The records were made even more valuable and influential
because of the voluminous liner notes and photographs accompanying the discs
to annotate the music, setting the history and context in which the songs
were made and performed. Such writing was very scarce at the time, and liner
notes provided an important beginning to the serious study of such music.
In the late 50s album Mountain Music, Bluegrass Style, Mike was one of the
first to apply the term "bluegrass" to describe the music created by
Kentuckian Bill Monroe, and to draw attention to the fact that other bands
were beginning to emulate that driving, jazz/blues-influenced mountain
sound. His recorded output amounted to well over eighty LPs and CDs, divided
among NLCR albums, those produced with other groups, such as The Strange
Creek Singers, solo projects, and albums documenting a variety of folk and
hillbilly music from banjo styles to dance steps. Mike, along with his
friends like Ralph Rinzler and former wife Alice Gerrard, was instrumental
via the Newport Folk Foundation, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and
other organizations in bringing the music of Bill Monroe, Maybelle Carter,
Cousin Emmy, and many other country, blues, and Cajun performers to the
attention of urban audiences via festivals, folk clubs, and college
concerts. His work with the New Lost City Ramblers spanned a period of fifty
years and included performances around the globe from Europe to Asia.
Perhaps most importantly, Mike simply radiated music. His enthusiasm for,
love of, and expertise with traditional forms of American folk music created
friends and fans wherever he went. His performances were deceptively simple,
masterful, charming, and haunting, all at once. The music was always first
with Mike, and his example will shine in the memories of all who met,
watched, and knew him. He personified the line from an early Carter Family
recording: "You may forget the singer, but don't forget the song."
He is survived by his wife, Alexia Smith; three sons by his first marriage
to Marge Ostrow: Kim, Chris Arley, and Jeremy; four step-children with Alice
Gerrard: Cory, Jenny, Joel, and Jesse; his sisters Peggy and Barbara; and
his half-brothers Pete and John.
May you rest in peace, my friend.
Peter Feldmann
Los Olivos, California
August, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Peter Feldmann, used by permission.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter Feldmann is a singer and multi-instrumentalist with many years'
performing experience throughout California and the West, Peter Feldmann has
been presenting bluegrass, folk, string band, and related musics since the
early 1960s, and is known as the founder of the Santa Barbara Old Time
Fiddler's Convention, and the original Bluebird Café in Santa Barbara, a
music club highly influential on the Southern California Music scene. Last
year, he was given the Music Legend Award by the Topanga Banjo/Fiddle
Association. His website is BlueGrassWest.com.
***
Bernie Pearl hosts Blues Power at KPFK Thursday August 20,
10:30pm - Midnight. He learned at the elbows of bluesmasters
'Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb, Mississippi Fred MacDowell,
and others, hosted 'Nothin' But the Blues", top rated show on then
KLON (now KJAZZ,) founded the Long Beach Blues Frestival in 1979,
leading it through the early 1990's. His knowledge, taste and style
promise a welcome, warm and thoroughly enjoyable show.
That's tomorrow, Thursday, August 20th, 10:30pm -Midnight.
On KPFK , 90.7 fm. It's about time.
***
Friday, August 21st, 7 pm
A Free Gaza event with Omar Offendum
Cordell Hall (Venice Center for Peace and Justice)
Venice United Methodist Church
2210 Lincoln Blvd.
Venice, CA
Saturday, August 22nd (evening)
A Free Gaza event with Maria Armoudian
SideBar Cafe
1114 N. Pacific Ave.
Glendale, CA
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