The New Lost Times

Mike Seeger at Arizona State University

 

Mike is doing his regular set in Phoenix, Arizona tonight. For a measly eight bucks? Are you kidding? You can't possibly go wrong. Request "Stole and Sold from Africa" in the unlikely event he doesn't do it. Here's the press release from Arizona State University:

Folk Musician Mike Seeger comes to ASU

The ASU Herberger College School of Music welcomes Mike Seeger, one of American's premier traditional folk-music artists. Seeger will perform songs from his album, “Music From True Vine,” beginning at 7:30 p.m., April 18.

Interest in traditional folk music is increasing on campus and in the community. Seeger's research in southern Appalachian folk traditions has positioned him as one of the leading performers and scholars of this music. This traditional folk music grows out of hundreds of years of British and African musical traditions to produce songs and sounds that are unique to the United States. This music is the roots of today's country, bluegrass and popular music.

“His performances include a wide variety of styles, including blues, traditional ballads and bluegrass breakdowns, and represent the music that was created by common people for their own enjoyment.” says Karen Bryan, associate director of undergraduate studies in the Herberger College School of Music.”

Seeger plays a wide variety of traditional styles and an array of instruments, including banjo, fiddle, guitar, trump (jaw harp), mouth harp (harmonica), quills, lap dulcimer, mandolin and Autoharp. Like earlier old-time musicians, Seeger seeks out his own vision of the music, making the music uniquely his own.

Tickets for the performance are $8 and can be purchased through the Herberger College box office by calling (480) 965-6447.

Catherine Bickell, catherine.bickell@asu.edu
(480) 965-2817

 

Mike Seeger on NPR with Ry Cooder

From the Jazz News Press Service:

On March 24, Ry Cooder will give a rare live performance at NYC’s Town Hall, as part of a broadcast of the popular radio program A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Cooder will perform songs from his critically acclaimed new album ‘My Name is Buddy, ’ and be backed by many of the musicians - known collectively as The New Cardboard Avenue Jaywalkers - who contribute to this unique recording: Mike Seeger on banjo, Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains on whistles/pipes, Roland White on mandolin, and Joachim Cooder on drums.

A Prairie Home Companion is heard by over 4 million listeners weekly, and airs on over 580 public radio stations nationwide. In addition, it is heard abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks In Europe and the Far East. See the PHC website for a complete list of affiliates.

‘Buddy, ’ the follow-up to Cooder’s Grammy-nominated 2005 album ‘Chavez Ravine, ’ was released on March 6 to great critical acclaim.

“An eccentric but musically sublime concept album ... casually brilliant.” - BOSTON GLOBE

“A sweeping piece played out in intimate detail, reminding us that at the bottom of everything Cooder does, he is most of all a social historian.” - SF CHRONICLE

Mike Seeger on new Ry Cooder CD

Ry Cooder has released a CD which the critics say is in the spirit of his early career, before the Cuban stuff. They say it has the feel of Woody Guthrie's dust bowl ballads and the songs are politically pointed. It's a theme album and follows three characters -- Buddy Red Cat, Lefty Mouse, and the Reverend Tom Toad.

In any case, Mike Seeger and his half brother play on the album. The Globe and Mail writes:

Cooder, always the superb curator, uses Dylan-hero Mike Seeger (fiddle, harmonica, jaw harp) on "Strike!" And that's Mike and half-brother Pete Seeger doubling up on banjos for "J. Edgar," a hillbilly toe-tapper concerning an insatiable (Big Business) hog who can never be fed enough.

It sounds like a great album, from what I'm reading about it.

Paul Nelson (1936-2006), produced Seeger album

Paul Nelson died a few weeks ago. He was the reviews editor for Rolling Stone in the 1970's, wrote early-on for Sing Out! and the Village Voice, was an A&R man for Mercury. He was an early champion of a lot of people he didn't need to champion, like Rod Stewart, David Bowie, and the New York Dolls. He defended Dylan for "going electric" when other Sing Out! writers were cutting Dylan no slack.

Nelson was from Minnesota, and there's a good piece on him in the Twin Cities weekly, The City Pages.

He also produced the 1973 Mike Seeger album "Second Annual Fairwell Reunion," which was on the Mercury label. The label also released "Music From True Vine" in 1971 and I bet Nelson also had a hand in that.

 

Seeger at Pitt for teacher's institute

Mike Seeger will help teachers from around the country learn how to teach American history through song. Here's a press release (which I've drastically shortened for you) from Pitt.

Teachers From Around the Country to Convene at Pitt for "Voices Across Time"

Teachers from Hawaii, Texas, and a dozen other states will assemble at the University of Pittsburgh June 26-July 28 for Voices Across Time: Teaching American History Through Song, an institute that will help them learn how to teach social studies, language arts, and other subjects by using American music.

The 25 participants will learn techniques that will allow them to return to their home school districts and weave American music into the curricula.

“The sound of history is missing from our classrooms,” says institute codirector Deane Root, the curator of the Center for American Music and chair of Pitt's music department. “Music sends messages about the lives and values of the people who produced, performed, and consumed it. It provides a very real soundtrack to events throughout history.”

Musicians taking part in this year's institute include folksinger and instrumentalist Mike Seeger, who documented Southeast mountain folk music traditions through field recordings and his own playing. He and his group, The New Lost City Ramblers, exerted a strong influence on the string-band revival of the 1960s. Musicians Jay Unger and Molly Mason also will take part.

Voices Across Time is funded through a $165,581 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 

Seeger & Hazel Dickens at Seedtime

The second weekend in June, Mike Seeger and Hazel Dickens will be at the 20th Seedtime on the Cumberland festival put on by Appalshop. This sounds like a blast.

Looks like they'll be headlining Friday night and doing various demonstrations, discussions, and jams over the course of the weekend. I've seen Seeger do similar weekends before, carrying on the great tradition of the folk festival weekend workshop. It's a big part of what it means to be a folk music enthusiast -- getting to see, up close, the masters work and talk about what they do.

I can't say much more about Hazel Dickens than what is said at eFolkMusic. Mike Seeger was heavily involved in the Baltimore area's folk and bluegrass scenes in the 1950's -- around the same time as Hazel and her singing partner Alice Gerrard -- so I'd imagine the three met there. They've all worked together often over the years.

 

Jolie Holland compared to Elizabeth Cotton

Back on February 8th, New Lost City Rambler Mike Seeger and the young singer-songwriter Jolie Holland honored Elizabeth Cotton at an event in New York CIty. Mike Seeger, of course, was there because he was Cotton's close friend, primary recordist, and his family "discovered" her. The Celestial Monochord has now published some thoughts on why Holland might have been asked to participate in the event:

Holland and Cotton remind us that it's behind closed doors that the real disclosures are made. And when they sit you down in their parlor, we're reminded that the supposedly traditional domain of women is at least as hard and gritty as the world outside.

Read the whole article.

 

Bill C. Malone writing Seeger biography

"Country Music, USA" has been the definitive history of country music since 1968, when it was the only full-length work to treat the genre seriously. Its author, Bill C. Malone, is certainly one of the Grand Old Men of the serious study of popular music. According to The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin, Malone is now working on a biography of Mike Seeger.

It's about time -- Mike's life has taken on Homeric proportions in the minds of many enthusiasts of "roots music." He founded the New Lost City Ramblers, created the first bluegrass LP ever released, toured with Maybelle Carter, rediscovered and befriended Dock Boggs in the last years of Boggs' life, and in more recent years, continues to invent and re-invent a vitally contemporary art of musical obsolescence.

I've long been troubled by the lack of a biography of Seeger (or history of the NLCR). I've even thought seriously about writing one myself. Luckily for everybody, the teeny-tiny-bit more qualified Malone has apparently taken on the job.

 

Seeger's new autoharp anthology

Last week, Smithsonian-Folkways released a set of Mike Seeger's field recordings of old-time autoharpists, Masters of Old-time Country Autoharp. The 1957-1961 recordings include cuts by Earnest Stoneman (veteran of the 1927 Bristol sessions), and Kilby Snow, who may be thought of as "the Earl Scruggs of the autoharp" and who Seeger thinks might have influenced Maybelle Carter.

An earlier compilation of Seeger field recordings, Close To Home (with Dock Boggs, the Carters, Clarence Ashley, etc.), included an astonishing Kilby Snow recording, "He Will Set Your Fields On Fire." Listeners to that CD will be delighted to find that the thrilling, technically mystifying performance is no fluke -- Snow's work is consistently amazing.

The track notes for Masters of Old-time Country Autoharp were written by Charles Wolfe -- they must've been just about the last of his many gifts to lovers of old American music.

 

Seeger's brother gets tribute CD

Apparently, Mike Seeger has an older half-brother named Pete who also plays music -- no doubt trading on Mike's fame.

Bruce Springsteen (a New Jersey guitarist and singer-songwriter who is also, no doubt, trading on Mike's fame) has recently released a CD of songs he associates with Pete.

Serioulsy, I own the CD and like it very much. What took him so long?

Read more about Pete and Bruce.

UPDATE (5/3): Today is Pete Seeger's birthday -- the guy was born in 1919.