Published on:
January 29th, 2014
I was thinking about Pete Seeger and what he and his music meant to many.
It was not just the folk songs, it was the role and responsibility of the musician that Seeger exemplified.
To Seeger, Politics and Music were never separated.
Throughout his life, as a young man singing to migrant farmworkers, to his being blacklisted, to his anti-war performances, to his fight for the environment, Seeger helped set the standard by which politics, music and humanity came together.
Pete Seeger, Paul Robeson, Josh White, Leadbelly and Wood Guthrie were the lynchpins for all the music I heard as a kid, and are the criteria by which I listen to any music today. I hear their clarity, honesty and beauty in Dianne Reeves and John Coltrane, in Terence Blanchard and Rene Marie.
To all audio-lovers and the music we grew up with, the great ones, artists like Pete Seeger, were crucial in forming our "Souls" --- Seeger was simply definitional.
The world will miss his generosity, his humility, his voice.
