Pete Seeger - Pete Remembers Woody

Limited edition double LP

Stories and recollections by Pete Seeger with the music of: David Bernz, Arlo Guthrie, Work O’ the Weavers, Cisco Houston, The Vanaver Caravan & The Almanac Singers

Stories and recollections by Pete Seeger, with the music of: Work O' The Weavers, The Vancouver Caravan and Amy Fradon, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie, David Bernz. America's greatest living folksinger, songwriter and political activist celebrates the Centennial anniversary of his legendary friend Woody Guthrie's birth through recollections and stories. Pete and guest musicians perform some of Woody's classic songs.

It's no overstatement to say that American music and America itself would be very different without the lasting influence of the late singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie (1912 - 1967). He was the prototype of the 20th Century rambling minstrel, turning his travels and observations into a huge body of topical and timeless music — songs that contrasted our country's natural glories and sociopolitical shames, pro-labor songs, both pro- and anti-war songs, kids' songs, patriotic and "left-wing" songs, music for everyday people to think about as they sing.

When the 21-year-old Pete Seeger first met Guthrie, six years his senior, backstage at a benefit concert in 1940, he was enthralled by Guthrie's music, lyrical vision, and charisma. The two men started traveling and performing together, which was, in Pete's words, his own "big, big education in learning about America."

On the two volume double LP sets, Pete Remembers Woody, Pete recounts his vivid firsthand reminiscences, wide-ranging and frequently humorous, of Woody's adult life — Guthrie's transmutation of his experiences and omnivorous readings into popular although often controversial songs, his tips on freight-hopping and saloon singing, encounters with musical contemporaries Leadbelly and others, and many of the life lessons Pete has subsequently used in his own career, still ongoing in this Centennial year of Guthrie's birth.

Interspersed with Pete's recollections of Woody are versions of some of Guthrie's most famous songs performed by idealistic links in the topical music chain like Arlo Guthrie (dueting with Pete on one of the few Woody-Seeger co-writes, "66 Highway Blues"), the Work o' the Weavers ("This Land is Your Land," "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh!"), producer David Bernz, whose own three-part "Woody's Ghost" serves to bookend and provide an intermission between the two volumes, and Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, who added music to Woody's lyrics for "Howdy Little Newlycome."

The Vanaver Caravan, the 40-year-old troupe of musicians and dancers, performs the Depression plaint "Do Re Mi," "Union Maid," "Pastures of Plenty" and "Peace Pin Boogie," while members of Hope Machine tackle "I Ain't Got No Home" and "I've Got to Know." Woody himself, with another of his running buddies, Cisco Houston, is heard on a 1940s recording of "New York Town." Fink's banjo-playing on various traditional tunes helps tie together the masterful sequencing of spoken stories and related songs.

That two men - Guthrie and Seeger - with a passion to carry on and expand music's potential for social change among the less fortunate, as well as for entertainment - should overlap, interact and inspire fellow and future musicians and listeners was a timely miracle. Listen to how it happened - and how it lives on - on these lively spoken and sung musical documents.

 

 

Side 1

Woody's Ghost - Part 2 - David Bernz

From WWII to The Weavers

Just Make It A General Song

So Long It's Been Good To Know Yuh! - Work O’ the Weavers

The Last Time I Heard Woody Sing

Side 2

Pastures Of Plenty - Bill Vanaver/ The Vanaver Caravan

The Freest Place On Earth

This Machine Kills Fascists

Little Arlo Writes Things Down

Woody In The Balcony

Side 3

This Land Is Your Land - Work O’ the Weavers

The Last Visit

My Peace - Work O’ the Weavers

Woody Lives On

I Ain't Got No Home - Fred Gillen Jr, and Steve Kirkman of Hope Machine

Side 4

Howdy Little Newlycome - Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer

Peace Pin Boogie - Amy Fradon and The Vanaver Caravan

Woody's "Rulin's" - David Bernz

I've Got To Know - Steve Kirkman

Woody's Ghost - Part 3 - David Bernz

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