Pete Seeger Embarks on Short Benefit Tour in Canada

06Jul08

Pete Seeger has teamed up with USC Canada to raise money for its Seeds of Survival Program, a program that “promotes long-term food security for marginal farming communities in developing countries.” The eighty-nine year old folk icon, along with grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and New York folk/blues musician Guy Davis, started the tour in Montreal on July 5th and will play in Toronto, Kingston, and Ottawa, Ontario over the next week.

The sold-out Montreal matinée show, presented by local Hello Darlin’ Productions, was held at the River’s Edge Community Church in Montreal’s West end. The group opened with the traditional folk song Midnight Special followed by Seeger’s Turn Turn Turn (popularized by the Byrds in 1965). The set also included If I Had A Hammer, Sailing Up, Sailing Down, Sticking With The Union, I Don’t Want Your Millions Mister, Guantanemera, Take It From Dr. King, This Little Light of Mine, and She’ll Be Coming Around The Mountain, among other songs.

Despite his years and failing singing voice, Seeger’s spirit and energy shone through as he encouraged the crowd to sing and harmonize and spoke with conviction about his music and politics. His banjo and guitar playing were confident and musical, albeit a little shaky. Rodriguez-Seeger supported his grandfather with sensitivity, and proved himself to be a strong vocalist, guitar player and banjo player in his own right. Multi-instrumentalist Davis took center stage several times, and also supported the other two on guitar, mandolin and percussion, even pulling out a banjo at one point near the end of the show.

Born in 1919, the youngest son of musicologist Charles Seeger, Pete Seeger proved to the world that songs have the power to not only “help distract you from your troubles”, but to “understand your troubles, and do something about your troubles.” Blacklisted for seventeen years during the prime of his career for Communist sympathies, Seeger nevertheless became an international symbol for peace and resistance through music. He was a folk revivalist, a songwriter, and an activist working for labour, civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements. He played with (among others) Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, The Almanac Singers, and The Weavers.

His many awards and recognitions include Cuba’s Felix Varela Medal for humanistic and artistic work in defense of the environment and against racism (1999), induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1996), The National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts (1994), and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award (1993). There is a petition to have Seeger nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, a documentary, will be released this year as part of PBS’s American Masters series.

Seeger resides in Beacon, New York with his wife Toshi where he continues to write topical songs, educate children through song, and do work to help solve local environmental and social problems.

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