Pete Seeger sings our hearts out

Sometimes music surrounds and embeds us so fully as a community that we lose track of how inspired and driven its presence is in our lives as the result of a single artist. We all know the name of Pete Seeger, the artists he has collected around himself (especially as the Weavers), and many of his best known songs. What I had lost track of was how much at the intersection of critical moments in the peace movement Pete Seeger has stood and given voice to our song of freedom and democracy.

Seeger has a clear enough sense of humor to perhaps enjoy being seen as the unacknowledged inspiration for the fictional character of Forrest Gump. There are so many times where critical national events are deeply framed by the presence of Pete Seeger and one of his songs: Touring with Arlo Guthrie, being blacklisted as a subversive and then confronting Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee as a true patriot, teaching Martin Luther King, Jr. “We Shall Overcome” at Highlander conference and retreat center, launching the sloop Clearwater on the mission of cleaning up the Hudson River, inspiring and supporting the voices of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Paxton and so many others.

Nor did I know how instrumental (to use the pun on purpose), Pete Seeger has been in the general global work of musicology with Alan Lomax and his father, traveling the world to collect and preserve folk traditions of music and dance; and more specifically instilling a passion for the banjo in American folk traditions. When I was a college student forty years ago I remember the excitement if a Pete Seeger visit was scheduled at an Ohio area college; my friends and I could sing Seeger songs for hours it seemed around a campfire or in the student union; our marches were inspired and lifted by his music and his spirit.

There is a movement this year to advance the name of Pete Seeger for the Nobel Peace prize. A viewing of The Power of Song this week on many local public television stations will document why that is an appropriate goal. No other singer has done more over nearly four generations already to get to the heart of the matter of peace and put it into song than Pete Seeger.

Visit the PBS web site to find your local air time.