In 1955 American activist and folk singer Pete Seeger was dragged before and blacklisted by the House Un American Activities Commission for refusing to name names. This was after the Hollywood 10 had been sent to jail, and he himself narrowly avoided jail time. It was a demonstration of Seeger’s conviction to an ideal, and in his music he tirelessly agitated against the Vietnam war, labour rights and for social and racial equity.
The music on this 2cd set that encompasses his final three albums for the Columbia label between 1968 and 1971, possessing a certain weariness, yet also a kind of optimistic wisdom born out of struggle. His songs are gentle and simple, just his guitar or banjo and voice, with only sparse accompaniment from bass, keys or guitar, never obtrusive, always respectfully behind Seeger, giving his tunes more body. There’s a certain swamp jig that pops up occasionally such as during The Hobo’s Lullaby, yet the real story is about the lyrics. In the 40’s he performed regularly with Woody Guthrie, and over the years refined his talking folk style. His wordplay here is inventive, at times audacious, he can be scathing, black, and sarcastic one moment and the next whimsical and romantic. So we’ve got 1968’s Now, 1969 ‘s Young Vs. Old and 1971’s Rainbow Race. He sings call and response with a choir, adapts a blues and hillbilly influences, tells stories, and approaches everything with a mischievous wit. In fact the sheer cleverness and anger at the core of a track like Talkin Ben Tre is just astonishing. The tale of the US army destroying a Vietnamese village in order to ‘save’ it, it’s just so simple, delivered matter of factly by Seeger over hillbilly banjo to a live audience that plugs right in to the absurdity of the thinking behind the American war machine.
This collection typically of Omni reissues lovingly comes with extensive liner notes in a 20 page booklet detailing Seeger’s life, with some of his writings and some archival photos.
Bob Baker Fish
