Pete Seeger

Friends --

I'll post the weekly recap shortly but first I wanted to say a few words about Pete Seeger, who died today at the age of 94. I won't go out of my way to recap his achievements. The New York Times has an obituary well worth reading, and I recommend you do:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/arts/music/pete-seeger-songwriter-and-champion-of-folk-music-dies-at-94.html

The co-founder of the Old Town School, Frank Hamilton, was a friend and collaborator of Seeger's, who performed alongside him in The Weavers. Our school owes a lot to Seeger and the faculty has spent most of today exchanging remembrances and telling stories about how our lives were touched by the music.

When we all get together in a room and play music as a group, we are part of an age old tradition that Pete fought his whole life to preserve. Music is our shared humanity, and the simplest songs can change the world. Listen to the voices joining together to sing "We Shall Overcome" -- a traditional song which Pete modified and wrote new verses to -- during the March on Washington. Flip through the Old Town School Songbook and see the stories of oppression, injustice, hardship, and loss that have painted the history of the country in blood--and through which we have endured thanks in no small part to the hymns and traditional songs that bring us together to heal.

Make no mistake, we have fun and play pop songs together, but when you pick up a guitar and strum a song with your friends, you are doing something powerful and profoundly political. When Pete was summoned before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee for his alleged communist ties, he was accused of being a rebel rouser and an anarchist--because he played a banjo and sang songs about peace. He was sentenced to prison (later overturned), and blacklisted. It was 20 years before he was heard on TV or the radio again. BECAUSE HE SANG FOLK SONGS.

He was a radical and a revolutionary to be sure, but the only weapon he wielded was music. Woody Guthrie famously wrote "This Machine Kills Fascists" on his guitar. And in homage to his friend, Seeger wrote something on his banjo too. "This Machine Surrounds Hate And Forces It To Surrender." To understand the depth of the difference between those two messages is to begin to understand what a loss we experienced today upon Pete's death.

There's an outstanding documentary called "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song" that I highly recommend you rent and watch. It'll inspire you to keep playing guitar and keep singing until the world looks brighter for your children.

Thank you, Pete! Thank you for leaving the world brighter for us.