1.+Pete+Seeger

=Pete Seeger=

Born:1919 He is still alive today. ==

Pete Seeger was born in 1919. His father was a musicologist and his mother was a violinist. His parents divorced when he was young, and his father then married Ruth Crawford-Seeger, who was a composer. They influenced him early in life to be a musician.

He was encouraged by Woody Guthrie and Alan Lomax, a Woody Guthrie enthusiast and folklorist, to start playing the banjo. He soon became one of the most prominent banjo players in folk music. He also was one of the few American musicians at the time who could play the fretless banjo.

Seeger attended Harvard in 1936 and 1937 to study sociology, but he dropped out in 1938 when his grades began to slip and he lost his scholarship. This was partly due to the fact that Seeger had begun to spend all of his time mastering the banjo and learning to play folk music. He then began, like Woody Guthrie, to travel the U.S. and collect folk songs.

**Musical Career:**
In 1940, Seeger joined the Almanac singers with Woody Guthrie, which was a quartet that was known for playing "primarily in union halls and at farm meetings. They disbanded after the end of World War II."(FOF)

Seeger also served some time in the military during World War II. He entertained the soldiers by singing folk songs.

Then in 1948, Seeger formed the band that was probably the most well-known band he was ever in called the Weavers. This band included Ronnie Gilbert, Lee Hayes and Fred Hellerman. Their most famous song that they ever played was their version of "Goodnight Irene", written by Leadbelly, another prominent musician at the time. The Weavers version of the song was a number one hit for thirteen weeks in 1950. The weavers were blacklisted in the 1950s for being communists, and had to disband, until they could play in public again and they had a reunion Christmas concert at Carnagie Hall.

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 * Goodnight Irene:**

The Weavers were soon blacklisted during the age of McCarthyism, and Seeger was not allowed to play on public television or radio until his convictions on contempt of Congress were eventually overturned in 1962. But even then, he was still not allowed to play on some television and radio programs for a while.

Later on in Seeger's career, his protest songs came to be more about civil rights and the protest against the war in Vietnam.

Seeger Today
Pete Seeger is still alive today. He performed with Bruce Springsteen for Barack Obama's inaugural celebration at the lincoln memorial. They lead the nation in singing Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land", and "We are One".

Videos:
Documentary:

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Pete Seeger Songs:
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Here is a song that Pete Seeger wrote for workers' rights. He specifically wrote this particular song for farmers. media type="youtube" key="x-o3CJytIPE" height="385" width="480"

This song is a protest for the war in Vietnam.

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This is another song protesting the war in Vietnam:

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