Hard Travelling: The Best of Pete Seeger

Performer: Pete Seeger
Artist: Frank Hamilton; Memphis Slim; Willie Dixon
Distributor: Fusion 3 Distribution

Notes: In his 60-some years as a public performer, Pete Seeger has left an indelible footprint on popular music. As a member of the Almanac Singers (with Woody Guthrie, Lee Hays, and Millard Lampell) in the 1940s and the Weavers (again with Lee Hays, as well as Fred Hellerman and Ronnie Gilbert) a decade later, Seeger helped midwife the urban folk boom of the 1960s. His comfortable voice and graceful banjo style give his many compositions and folk adaptations an easy and elegant dignity. Most importantly, Seeger has always been an engaging, intelligent, comfortable, compelling, and accessible live performer, and since many of the tracks on this pleasant compilation were recorded at shows, that side of Seeger's back-porch genius is on display. Included here are fine takes on two of his most enduring songs, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "The Bells of Rhymney," as well as the Almanac Singers staple "The Sinking of the Reuben James." The end result is a nice introduction to a vital and important American voice. ~ Steve Leggett

Without Pete Seeger, American folk music as we know it today would be radically different. Seeger was one of modern folk's earliest and most significant architects, from his work in the 1940s with the Almanac Singers (of which Woody Guthrie was a member) and the famed Weavers, to his voice-of-a-generation political music of the 1960s and beyond. He helped adapt America's earliest musical traditions to a politicized post-war environment. In addition to his legendary songs of protest, civil rights, and environmentalism, Seeger is well known for creating wonderful children's music. He continued to record and perform into the 2000s.

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