Mike Seeger

Mike Seeger
Born (1933-08-15)August 15, 1933
Origin New York City, US
Died August 7, 2009(2009-08-07) (aged 75)
Lexington, Virginia, United States
Genres Old-time, folk
Occupation(s) musician, singer
Instruments autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, harmonica, pan pipes, shaker, double bass
Labels Folkways, Rounder, Arhoolie, Argo, Greenhays, 5-String Productions, Appalseed
Associated acts New Lost City Ramblers, Strange Creek Singers, Peggy Seeger

Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933 – August 7, 2009) was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes.[1][2] Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary recordings, and performed in more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make known the caretakers of culture that inspired and taught him.[3]

Family and early life

Seeger was born in New York and grew up in Maryland and Washington D.C. His father, Charles Louis Seeger Jr., was a composer and pioneering ethnomusicologist, investigating both American folk and non-Western music. His mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, was a composer.[4] His eldest half-brother, Charles Seeger III, was a radio astronomer, and his next older half-brother, John Seeger, taught for years at the Dalton School in Manhattan. His next older half brother was Pete Seeger. His uncle, Alan Seeger, a poet, was killed during the First World War. His sister Peggy Seeger, also a well-known folk performer, was married for many years to British folk singer Ewan MacColl. His sister, singer Penny Seeger, married John Cohen, a member of Mike's musical group, New Lost City Ramblers.[5] Seeger was a self-taught musician who began playing stringed instruments at the age of 18. He also sang Sacred Harp with Ewan and Calum MacColl.

The family moved to Washington D.C. in 1936 after his father's appointment to the music division of the Resettlement Administration. While in Washington D.C., Ruth Seeger worked closely with John and Alan Lomax at the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress to preserve and teach American folk music. Ruth Seeger's arrangements and interpretations of American Traditional folk songs in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s are well regarded.

Musical career

At about the age of 20, Mike Seeger began collecting songs by traditional musicians on a tape recorder.[1] Folk musicians such as Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, John Jacob Niles, and others were frequent guests in the Seeger home.[1]

In 1958 he co-founded the New Lost City Ramblers, an old-time string band in New York City, during the Folk Revival. The other founding members included John Cohen and Tom Paley. Paley later left the group in 1962[6] and was replaced by Tracy Schwarz. The New Lost City Ramblers directly influenced countless musicians in subsequent years. The Ramblers distinguished themselves by focusing on the traditional playing styles they heard on old 78rpm records of musicians recorded during the 1920s and 1930s. Tracy was also in Mike's other band, Strange Creek Singers. So was Mike's former wife, Alice Gerrard. She was Alice Seeger in that band and sang and played guitar in it. The other people in Strange Creek Singers were bass player and singer Hazel Dickens and banjo player Lamar Grier who didn't sing at all. Mike sang and played guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, autoharp, and harmonica in the band.

Seeger received six Grammy nominations and was the recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.[1] His influence on the folk scene was described by Bob Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One. He was a popular presenter and performer at traditional music gatherings such as Breakin' Up Winter.

Eight days before his 76th birthday, Mike Seeger died at his home in Lexington, Virginia on August 7, 2009, after stopping cancer treatment.[2][7]

Discography

Recordings with the New Lost City Ramblers

Recording with Strange Creek Singers

Selected Films featuring Mike Seeger

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Mike Seeger: American folk revivalist and historian". Smithsonian Global Sound. Smithsonian Institution. 2007. Archived from the original on May 23, 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Brown, Paul (August 8, 2009). "Mike Seeger Cleared Paths, Showed Us The Way". NPR Music. National Public Radio. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  3. ↑ "Mike Seeger: Musician, Cultural Scholar, and Advocate". National Endowment for the Arts, National Heritage Fellowships. National Endowment for the Arts. 2009. Retrieved August 8, 2009. Bess Lomax Hawes NEA National Heritage Fellowship
  4. ↑ 1911 New York Times wedding announcement for Charles Louis Seeger and Ruth Crawford Seeger.
  5. ↑ A Vision Shared, Austin Chronicle, weeklywire.com, 18 August 1997. Retrieved on May 2, 2009.
  6. ↑ The Guinness Who's Who of Folk Music, 1993, ISBN 0-85112-741-X
  7. ↑ Brown, Paul (August 8, 2009). "Folk Music's Mike Seeger Dead". NPR Music. National Public Radio. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  8. ↑ Unterberger, Richie. Mike Seeger – Mike Seeger at AllMusic. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
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