Program I: Origins

From: David Dunaway
Series: Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing?
Length: 52:40

Program I: Origins How did a Harvard-educated boy become a radical, hitchhiking, banjo-playing, political activist? Program I explores Seeger’s youth and America’s folk revival of the 1930s and ‘40s. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Program I: Origins
From: David Dunaway

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Program I: Rediscovering America’s Folk Music

The origins of Pete Seeger go back to his family’s 18th Century immigration from Germany to Puritan New England and continues down through his musicologist parents, Charles and Constance Seeger. Seeger’s older brothers were given violin and piano lessons, but Pete was left to the ukulele. He grew up during the Depression amidst the folk music revival of the 1930s and ‘40s—with Alan Lomax, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie.

Seeger’s youthful hitchhiking with a banjo collected folk music. The result was 124 records and CDs, which shape our repertoire as Americans—the songs we know words to, and might sing aloud on buses.

Program Highlights:

Rare interviews with Pete’s father, Charles Seeger, profile the first person to teach folk music at an American college
Featured artists: Arlo Guthrie, Holly Near, Si Kahn
Great Stories: Pete Seeger sings and tells the story of writing his first song, “66 Highway Blues”

More from David Dunaway

Program II: Folk Songs and Ballads (48:42)
From: David Dunaway

This program evokes the exciting folk music revival of the 1950s and ‘60s and the role Seeger played in it.

Pete Seeger: How Can I Keep From Singing? Promos (02:16)
From: David Dunaway

Assorted :15 and :30 promos for the series.

Piece Description

Program I: Rediscovering America’s Folk Music

The origins of Pete Seeger go back to his family’s 18th Century immigration from Germany to Puritan New England and continues down through his musicologist parents, Charles and Constance Seeger. Seeger’s older brothers were given violin and piano lessons, but Pete was left to the ukulele. He grew up during the Depression amidst the folk music revival of the 1930s and ‘40s—with Alan Lomax, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie.

Seeger’s youthful hitchhiking with a banjo collected folk music. The result was 124 records and CDs, which shape our repertoire as Americans—the songs we know words to, and might sing aloud on buses.

Program Highlights:

Rare interviews with Pete’s father, Charles Seeger, profile the first person to teach folk music at an American college
Featured artists: Arlo Guthrie, Holly Near, Si Kahn
Great Stories: Pete Seeger sings and tells the story of writing his first song, “66 Highway Blues”