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112-709: In 1966, Pete Seeger and his wife Toshi Seeger founded the organization and within three years had the sloop Clearwater built to advocate for cleaning up the Hudson River . The founding was influenced by community opposition to a proposed power plant at Storm King Mountain . In 1969, the Clearwater made her maiden voyage down the Atlantic Coast from the Harvey Gamage Shipyard in Maine to

224-642: A Gullah black spiritual dating from slavery days, was also introduced to wide audiences by Pete Seeger and the Weavers (in 1959), becoming a staple of Boy and Girl Scout campfires. In the late 1950s, the Kingston Trio was formed in direct imitation of (and homage to) the Weavers, covering much of the latter's repertoire, though with a more buttoned-down, uncontroversial, and mainstream collegiate persona. The Kingston Trio produced another phenomenal succession of Billboard chart hits and, in its turn, spawned

336-664: A Scots word meaning to skip over water, or to skip stones. The origins of schooner rigged vessels is obscure, but there is good evidence of them from the early 17th century in paintings by Dutch marine artists. The earliest known illustration of a schooner depicts a yacht owned by the mayors (Dutch: burgemeesters) of Amsterdam, drawn by the Dutch artist Rool and dated 1600. Later examples show schooners (Dutch: schoeners) in Amsterdam in 1638 and New Amsterdam in 1627. Paintings by Van de Velde (1633–1707) and an engraving by Jan Kip of

448-672: A coffee house , featuring folk music performers, at the Memorial United Methodist Church in White Plains, New York , from October to May each year on the second Saturday of each month. The Walkabout Clearwater Chorus, a supporter of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, was founded in 1984 by Seeger. The chorus is made up people who love to sing and promote environmental and social justice causes. Its 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) model of

560-401: A sloop rig is simpler and cheaper, the schooner rig may be chosen on a larger boat so as to reduce the overall mast height and to keep each sail to a more manageable size, giving a mainsail that is easier to handle and to reef. An issue when planning a two-masted schooner's rig is how best to fill the space between the masts: for instance, one may adopt (i) a gaff sail on the foremast (even with

672-572: A 900-square-foot (84 m) jib on the foredeck. In light wind, a 450-square-foot (42 m) topsail may also be raised. In 2004, the sloop Clearwater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for her significance to the environmental movement. The Clearwater has a smaller sister ship, the Sloop Woody Guthrie , that is used in education about the river. In 2012, Pete Seeger and Lorre Wyatt released

784-432: A Bermuda mainsail), or (ii) a main staysail, often with a fisherman topsail to fill the gap at the top in light airs. Various types of schooners are defined by their rig configuration. Most have a bowsprit although some were built without one for crew safety, such as Adventure . The following varieties were built: Schooners were built primarily for cargo, passengers, and fishing. The Norwegian polar schooner Fram

896-455: A Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963) while The Byrds had a number one hit with "Turn! Turn! Turn!" in 1965. Seeger was one of the folk singers responsible for popularizing the spiritual " We Shall Overcome " (also recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists), which became the acknowledged anthem of the civil rights movement , soon after folk singer and activist Guy Carawan introduced it at

1008-621: A March 26, 1957, indictment for contempt of Congress ; for some years, he had to keep the federal government apprised of where he was going any time he left the Southern District of New York. He was convicted in a jury trial of contempt of Congress in March 1961, and sentenced to ten one-year terms in jail (to be served simultaneously), but in May 1962, an appeals court ruled the indictment to be flawed and overturned his conviction. In 1960,

1120-416: A Negro," "You can't live here 'cause you're a Jew," "You can't work here 'cause you're a union man." So, Mr. President, We got this one big job to do That's lick Mr. Hitler and when we're through, Let no one else ever take his place To trample down the human race. So what I want is you to give me a gun So we can hurry up and get the job done. Seeger's critics, however, continued to bring up

1232-623: A Rendezvous with Death"), had been one of the first American soldiers to be killed in World War I . All four of Pete's half-siblings from his father's second marriage—Margaret (Peggy), Mike, Barbara, and Penelope (Penny)—became folk singers. Peggy Seeger , a well-known performer in her own right, married British folk singer and activist Ewan MacColl . Mike Seeger was a founder of the New Lost City Ramblers , one of whose members, John Cohen , married Pete's half-sister Penny, also

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1344-614: A career in journalism and took courses in art as well. His first musical gig was leading students in folk singing at the Dalton School , where his aunt was principal. He polished his performance skills during a summer stint of touring New York state with the Vagabond Puppeteers (Jerry Oberwager, 22; Mary Wallace, 22; and Harriet Holtzman, 23), a traveling puppet theater "inspired by rural education campaigns of post-revolutionary Mexico". One of their shows coincided with

1456-788: A chorus of members of the Thälmann Battalion , made up of volunteers from Germany. The songs were "Moorsoldaten" (" Peat Bog Soldiers ", composed by political prisoners of German concentration camps); " Die Thaelmann-Kolonne ", "Hans Beimler", "Das Lied von der Einheitsfront" ("Song of the United Front" by Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht ), "Lied der Internationalen Brigaden" ("Song of the International Brigades"), and "Los cuatro generales" ("The Four Generals", known in English as "The Four Insurgent Generals"). As

1568-445: A coffeehouse with a different featured folk music performer each month. The concerts take place at Memorial United Methodist Church in White Plains , New York, twice each month from October to May of each year. Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc. owns and operates the sloop Clearwater , the centerpiece of Clearwater's public education programs. Clearwater serves as a movable classroom, laboratory, stage, and forum. The Clearwater

1680-415: A common rig, especially in the 19th century. Some schooners worked on deep sea routes. In British home waters, schooners usually had cargo-carrying hulls that were designed to take the ground in drying harbours (or, even, to unload dried out on an open beach). The last of these once-common craft had ceased trading by the middle of the 20th century. Some very large schooners with five or more masts were built in

1792-594: A community choir that promotes environmental and social justice causes. The chorus carries a 7-foot-tall (2.1 m) model of the Sloop Clearwater to their appearances at festivals, parades and other performances throughout the Hudson Valley area and beyond. The chorus appears on Seeger's 2008 album Pete Seeger at 89 . The chorus has performed in Dortmund, Germany, bi-annually since 2001. It also runs

1904-512: A controversial Almanac singer, the 21-year-old Seeger performed under the stage name "Pete Bowers" to avoid compromising his father's government career. In 1950, the Almanacs were reconstituted as the Weavers, named after the title of an 1892 play by Gerhart Hauptmann , about a workers' strike (which contained the lines "We'll stand it no more, come what may!"). They did benefits for strikers, at which they sang songs such as "Talking Union", about

2016-527: A covered baseball field. There the Seegers: watched square-dance teams from Bear Wallow , Happy Hollow, Cane Creek, Spooks Branch, Cheoah Valley, Bull Creek, and Soco Gap ; heard the five-string banjo player Samantha Bumgarner ; and family string bands, including a group of Indians from the Cherokee reservation who played string instruments and sang ballads. They wandered among the crowds who camped out at

2128-461: A favorite of Woody Guthrie, who was known to carry it around). Seeger toured Australia in 1963. His single " Little Boxes ", written by Malvina Reynolds, was number one in the nation's Top 40. That tour sparked a folk boom throughout the country at a time when popular music tastes, post– Kennedy assassination , competed between folk, the surfing craze , and the British rock boom that gave the world

2240-425: A folk "purist" who was one of the main opponents to Dylan's " going electric ", but when asked in 2001 about how he recalled his "objections" to the electric style, he said: I couldn't understand the words. I wanted to hear the words. It was a great song, " Maggie's Farm ," and the sound was distorted. I ran over to the guy at the controls and shouted, "Fix the sound so you can hear the words." He hollered back, "This

2352-648: A friend of his father's, at the Archive of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress . Seeger's job was to help Lomax sift through commercial " race " and " hillbilly " music and select recordings that best represented American folk music, a project funded by the music division of the Pan American Union (later the Organization of American States ), of whose music division his father, Charles Seeger,

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2464-510: A legion of imitators, laying the groundwork for the 1960s commercial folk revival. In the documentary film Pete Seeger: The Power of Song (2007), Seeger states that he resigned from the Weavers when the three other band members agreed to perform a jingle for a cigarette commercial . In 1948, Seeger wrote the first version of How to Play the Five-String Banjo , a book that many banjo players credit with starting them off on

2576-544: A lover of Americana, played " Cindy " and " Old Joe Clark " with his students Charlie and Jackson Pollock ; friends from the " hillbilly " recording industry; and avant-garde composers Carl Ruggles and Henry Cowell . It was at one of Benton's parties that Pete heard " John Henry " for the first time. Seeger enrolled at Harvard College on a partial scholarship, but as he became increasingly involved with politics and folk music, his grades suffered and he lost his scholarship. He dropped out of college in 1938. He dreamed of

2688-459: A platoon on maneuvers in Louisiana during World War II. With its lyrics about a platoon being led into danger by an ignorant captain, the song's anti-war message was obvious—the line "the big fool said to push on" is repeated several times. In the face of arguments with the management of CBS about whether the song's political weight was in keeping with the usually light-hearted entertainment of

2800-537: A resonant chord between two precise notes, a melody note and a chiming note on the fifth string", Pete Seeger "gentrified" the more percussive traditional Appalachian "frailing" style, "with its vigorous hammering of the forearm and its percussive rapping of the fingernail on the banjo head". Although what Dunaway's informant describes is the age-old droned frailing style, the implication is that Seeger made this more acceptable to mass audiences by omitting some of its percussive complexities, while presumably still preserving

2912-672: A self-described "split tenor" (between a tenor and a countertenor), Pete Seeger was a founding member of two highly influential folk groups: the Almanac Singers and the Weavers . The Almanac Singers, which Seeger co-founded in 1941 with Millard Lampell and Arkansas singer and activist Lee Hays , was a topical group, designed to function as a singing newspaper promoting the industrial unionization movement, racial and religious inclusion, and other progressive causes. Its personnel included, at various times: Woody Guthrie, Bess Lomax Hawes , Sis Cunningham , Josh White , and Sam Gary . As

3024-517: A smaller crew for their size compared to then traditional ocean crossing square rig ships, and being fast and versatile. Three-masted schooners were introduced around 1800. Schooners were popular on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1800s and early 1900s. By 1910, 45 five-masted and 10 six-masted schooners had been built in Bath, Maine and in towns on Penobscot Bay , including Wyoming which

3136-412: A square topsail on the foremast, to which may be added a topgallant . Differing definitions leave uncertain whether the addition of a fore course would make such a vessel a brigantine . Many schooners are gaff-rigged , but other examples include Bermuda rig and the staysail schooner. The name "schooner" first appeared in eastern North America in the early 1700s. The name may be related to

3248-591: A strike by dairy farmers. The group reprised its act in October in New York City. An article in the October 2, 1939, Daily Worker reported on the Puppeteers' six-week tour this way: During the entire trip the group never ate once in a restaurant. They slept out at night under the stars and cooked their own meals in the open, very often they were the guests of farmers. At rural affairs and union meetings,

3360-824: A talented singer, who died young. Barbara Seeger joined her siblings in recording folk songs for children. In 1935, Pete attended Camp Rising Sun , an international leadership camp held every summer in upstate New York, which influenced his life's work. His final visit occurred in 2012. At four, Seeger was sent away to boarding school, but came home two years later when his parents learned the school had failed to inform them he had contracted scarlet fever . He attended first and second grades in Nyack, New York , where his mother lived, before entering boarding school in Ridgefield, Connecticut . Despite being classical musicians, his parents did not press him to play an instrument. On his own,

3472-762: A third-party candidate on the Progressive Party ticket. Despite having attracted enormous crowds nationwide, however, Wallace did not win any electoral votes, and following the election, he was excoriated for accepting the help in his campaign of Communists and fellow travelers, such as Seeger and singer Paul Robeson . Seeger had been a fervent supporter of the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War . In 1943, with Tom Glazer and Bess and Baldwin Hawes, he recorded an album of 78s called Songs of

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater - Misplaced Pages Continue

3584-483: Is a 106-foot (32 m) wooden sailing vessel designed after 18th and 19th century Dutch sailing sloops. With a large gaff rig , a hinged centerboard , and wide shallow hull , these vessels evolved to deal with the challenges of strong tides , shallow waters, and variable winds encountered on the Hudson River . Designed by Cy Hamlin and built by The Harvey Gamage Shipyard in South Bristol, Maine , Clearwater

3696-694: Is concerned are development pressures in the southern half of the Hudson Valley, pesticide runoff, the Manhattan west side waterfront, Indian Point nuclear reactors, and New York/New Jersey Harbor dredge spoil disposal. Clearwater played a key role in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to compel one of the Hudson River's biggest polluters to begin removing toxic PCBs from the water and restoring one of

3808-714: Is considered the largest wooden ship ever built. The Thomas W. Lawson was the only seven-masted schooner built. The rig is rarely found on a hull of less than 50 feet LOA , and small schooners are generally two-masted. In the two decades around 1900, larger multi-masted schooners were built in New England and on the Great Lakes with four, five, six, or even, seven masts. Schooners were traditionally gaff-rigged, and some schooners sailing today are reproductions of famous schooners of old, but modern vessels tend to be Bermuda rigged (or occasionally junk-rigged) . While

3920-562: Is important is what we got to do, We got to lick Mr. Hitler, and until we do, Other things can wait. Now, as I think of our great land ... I know it ain't perfect, but it will be someday, Just give us a little time. This is the reason that I want to fight, Not 'cause everything's perfect, or everything's right. No, it's just the opposite: I'm fightin' because I want a better America, and better laws, And better homes, and jobs, and schools, And no more Jim Crow, and no more rules like "You can't ride on this train 'cause you're

4032-430: Is leading an unwilling people into a J.P. Morgan war". Eleanor Roosevelt, a fan of folk music, reportedly found the album "in bad taste", though President Roosevelt, when the album was shown to him, merely observed, correctly, as it turned out, that few people would ever hear it. More alarmist was the reaction of eminent German-born Harvard Professor of Government Carl Joachim Friedrich , an adviser on domestic propaganda to

4144-513: Is the way they want it." I said "Damn it, if I had an axe, I'd cut the cable right now." But I was at fault. I was the MC, and I could have said to the part of the crowd that booed Bob, "you didn't boo Howlin' Wolf yesterday. He was electric!" Though I still prefer to hear Dylan acoustic, some of his electric songs are absolutely great. Electric music is the vernacular of the second half of the twentieth century, to use my father's old term. One version of

4256-655: The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour , the final lines were "Every time I read the paper/those old feelings come on/We are waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool says to push on." The lyrics could be interpreted as an allegory of Johnson as the "big fool" and the Vietnam War as the foreseeable danger. Although the performance was cut from the September 1967 show, after wide publicity, it

4368-639: The 12-string guitar , an instrument of Mexican origin that had been associated with Lead Belly , who had styled himself "the King of the 12-String Guitar". Seeger's distinctive custom-made guitars had a triangular soundhole. He combined the long scale length (approximately 28") and capo -to-key techniques that he favored on the banjo with a variant of drop-D (DADGBE) tuning , tuned two whole steps down with very heavy strings, which he played with thumb and finger picks. In 1956, Seeger and his wife, Toshi, traveled to Port of Spain , Trinidad , to seek out information on

4480-601: The American Songbag (1927), and later created significant original settings for eight of Sandburg's poems. Pete's eldest brother, Charles Seeger III, was a radio astronomer, and his next older brother, John Seeger, taught in the 1950s at the Dalton School in Manhattan and was the principal from 1960 to 1976 at Fieldston Lower School in the Bronx . Pete's uncle, Alan Seeger , a noted American war poet ("I Have

4592-493: The Clearwater Festival have worked to draw attention to the problem of pollution of the Hudson River . Pollution in the river has included mercury contamination and sewage dumping, but the most discussed issue has been General Electric 's contamination of the river with Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) between 1947 and 1977. This pollution caused a range of harmful effects to wildlife and people who eat fish from

Hudson River Sloop Clearwater - Misplaced Pages Continue

4704-531: The New School for Social Research . Career and money tensions led to quarrels and reconciliations, but when Charles discovered Constance had opened a secret bank account in her own name, they separated, and Charles took custody of their three sons. Beginning in 1936, Charles held various administrative positions in the federal government's Farm Resettlement program , the WPA 's Federal Music Project (1938–1940) and

4816-577: The Puritan , Calvinist New England tradition", traced its genealogy back over 200 years. A paternal ancestor, Karl Ludwig Seeger, a physician from Württemberg , Germany, had emigrated to America during the American Revolution and married into the old New England family of Parsons in the 1780s. Seeger's father, the Harvard -trained composer and musicologist Charles Louis Seeger Jr. ,

4928-623: The San Diego school board told him that he could not play a scheduled concert at a high school unless he signed an oath pledging that the concert would not be used to promote a communist agenda or an overthrow of the government. Seeger refused, and the American Civil Liberties Union obtained an injunction against the school district, allowing the concert to go on as scheduled. Almost 50 years later, in February 2009,

5040-671: The South Street Seaport in New York City. Folk musician Tom Winslow wrote a folk music song, "Hey Looka Yonder (It's the Clearwater)", in which the lyrics specifically mention the fundraising efforts for the sloop, and how "black and white" people got together for this program. Based for many years in Poughkeepsie , New York, the Clearwater moved its office to Beacon , New York, in 2009. The Clearwater and

5152-416: The choruses of protesters singing, "All we are saying ... is give peace a chance." Schooner A schooner ( / ˈ s k uː n ər / SKOO -nər ) is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schooner also has

5264-736: The instrument . He went on to invent the long-neck or Seeger banjo. This instrument is three frets longer than a typical banjo, is slightly longer than a bass guitar at 25 frets, and is tuned a minor third lower than the normal 5-string banjo. Hitherto strictly limited to the Appalachian region, the five-string banjo became known nationwide as the American folk instrument par excellence, largely thanks to Seeger's championing of and improvements to it. According to an unnamed musician quoted in David King Dunaway 's biography, "by nesting

5376-511: The schooner Mystic Whaler to present Clearwater's education program to more schools and the public. One of the organization's biggest fundraisers has been its annual music and environmental festival, the Clearwater Festival . Officially known as the "Great Hudson River Revival," it was America's oldest and largest annual festival of its kind. The weekend-long festival was held each June for over three decades, with attendances of up to 15,000 people. The festival raised funds and consciousness on

5488-538: The steelpan , sometimes called a steel drum, or "ping-pong". The two searched out a local panyard director, Isaiah, and proceeded to film the construction, tuning and playing of the then-new national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago. He was attempting to include the unique flavor of the steelpan in American folk music. In the 1950s, and indeed consistently throughout his life, Seeger continued his support of civil and labor rights, racial equality, international understanding, and anti-militarism (all of which had characterized

5600-622: The 1940s, and had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers , notably their recording of Lead Belly 's " Goodnight, Irene ," which topped the charts for 14 weeks in 1950. Members of the Weavers were blacklisted during the McCarthy Era . In the 1960s, Seeger re-emerged on the public scene as a prominent singer of protest music in support of international disarmament , civil rights , counterculture , workers' rights , and environmental causes . A prolific songwriter, his best-known songs include " Where Have All

5712-399: The 1965 Newport Folk Festival that he threatened to disconnect the equipment. There are multiple versions of what went on, some fanciful. What is certain is that tensions had been running high between Dylan's manager Albert Grossman and Festival board members (who besides Seeger also included Theodore Bikel , Bruce Jackson , Alan Lomax , festival MC Peter Yarrow , and George Wein ) over

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5824-579: The 50-mile walk from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, along with 1,000 other marchers. By this time, Seeger was a senior figure in the 1960s folk revival centered in Greenwich Village , as a longtime columnist in Sing Out! , the successor to the People's Songs Bulletin , and as a founder of the topical Broadside magazine. To describe the new crop of politically committed folk singers, he coined

5936-642: The Almanacs cut several albums of 78s on Keynote and other labels: Songs for John Doe (recorded in late February or March and released in May 1941), Talking Union , and an album each of sea shanties and pioneer songs. Written by Millard Lampell, Songs for John Doe was performed by Lampell, Seeger, and Hays, joined by Josh White and Sam Gary. It contained lines, such as "It wouldn't be much thrill to die for Du Pont in Brazil," that were sharply critical of Roosevelt 's unprecedented peacetime draft (enacted in September 1940). This anti-war/anti-draft tone reflected

6048-408: The Almanacs had been, and its progressive message was couched in indirect language. The Weavers on occasion performed in tuxedos (unlike the Almanacs, who had dressed informally) and their managers refused to let them perform at political venues. The Weavers' string of major hits began with " On Top of Old Smoky " and an arrangement of Lead Belly 's signature waltz, " Goodnight, Irene ", which topped

6160-648: The Almanacs' repudiated Songs for John Doe . In 1942, a year after the John Doe album's brief appearance (and disappearance), the FBI decided that the now-pro-war Almanacs were still endangering the war effort by subverting recruitment. According to the New York World Telegram (February 14, 1942), Carl Friedrich's 1941 article "The Poison in Our System" was printed up as a pamphlet and distributed by

6272-469: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones , among others. Folk clubs sprang up all over the nation; folk performers were accepted in established venues; Australian performers singing Australian folk songs—many of their own composing—emerged in concerts and festivals, on television, and on recordings; and overseas performers were encouraged to tour Australia. The long television blacklist of Seeger began to end in

6384-526: The Beers Family, Roscoe Holcomb , Malvina Reynolds , Sonia Malkine, and Shawn Phillips . Thirty-nine hour-long programs were recorded at WNJU 's Newark studios in 1965 and 1966, produced by Seeger and his wife Toshi, with Sholom Rubinstein. The Smothers Brothers ended Seeger's national blacklisting by broadcasting him singing " Waist Deep in the Big Muddy " on their CBS variety show on February 25, 1968, after his similar performance in September 1967

6496-590: The Clearwater organization helped make the Hudson River cleaner. "His leadership was extraordinary," regional Administrator Judith A. Enck told United Press International . Clearwater's environmental education programs are intended to heighten public awareness of the Hudson River's unique ecosystem that blends freshwater streams from the Adirondack Mountains with the salt tides of the Atlantic Ocean around New York City . Sailing mostly on

6608-634: The Communist Party line after the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , which maintained that the war was "phony" and a mere pretext for big American corporations to get Hitler to attack Soviet Russia. Seeger has said he believed this line of argument at the time, as did many fellow members of the Young Communist League (YCL). Though nominally members of the Popular Front , which was allied with Roosevelt and more moderate liberals,

6720-678: The Council for Democracy (an organization that Friedrich and Henry Luce 's right-hand man, C. D. Jackson , Vice President of Time magazine, had founded "to combat all the Nazi, fascist, communist, pacifist" antiwar groups in the United States). Seeger served in the U.S. Army in the Pacific . He was trained as an airplane mechanic, but was reassigned to entertain the American troops with music. Later, when people asked him what he did in

6832-508: The Flowers Gone? " (with additional lyrics by Joe Hickerson ), " If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (with Lee Hays of the Weavers), " Kisses Sweeter Than Wine " (also with Hays), and " Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962); Marlene Dietrich , who recorded it in English, German and French (1962); and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had

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6944-663: The Hudson River between New York City and Albany, New York , the sloop Clearwater is used primarily to offer environmental and biological education programs to school groups, touching on river biology, environmental protection of waterways and related topics. It offers sails for Clearwater members and the general public, as well as private charters. In addition to the professional crew, Clearwater offers opportunities for people to sail as volunteer crew for one week periods or as an intern/apprentice for up to two months to learn sailing , environmental education and assist with vessel maintenance. From 1996 until 2018, Clearwater chartered

7056-469: The Lincoln Battalion on Moe Asch's Stinson label. This included such songs as " There's a Valley in Spain Called Jarama " and " Viva la Quince Brigada ". In 1960, this collection was re-issued by Moe Asch as one side of a Folkways LP called Songs of the Lincoln and International Brigades . On the other side was a reissue of the legendary Six Songs for Democracy (originally recorded in Barcelona in 1938 while bombs were falling), performed by Ernst Busch and

7168-586: The Newport Festival controversy, as well as a glowing depiction of Seeger's early 1960s efforts to boost an unknown Bob Dylan, is dramatized in the 2024 feature film A Complete Unknown , where Edward Norton plays Pete Seeger. A longstanding opponent of the arms race and of the Vietnam War, Seeger satirically attacked then-President Lyndon Johnson with his 1966 recording, on the album Dangerous Songs!? , of Len Chandler 's children's song " Beans in My Ears ". Beyond Chandler's lyrics, Seeger said that "Mrs. Jay's little son Alby" had "beans in his ears", which, as

7280-440: The San Diego School District officially extended an apology to Seeger for the actions of its predecessors. To earn money during the blacklist period of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Seeger worked gigs as a music teacher in schools and summer camps, and traveled the college campus circuit. He also recorded as many as five albums a year for Moe Asch 's Folkways Records label. As the nuclear disarmament movement picked up steam in

7392-440: The Sloop Clearwater appears with the chorus at festivals and parades. The chorus performs at concert venues and festivals throughout the Hudson Valley area and beyond. It appears on Seeger's 2008 CD Pete Seeger at 89 . The Seeger Session of Liedstoeckel, Cuppatea and Walkabout Clearwater Chorus was performed live at UZ-Pressefest 2009 in Dortmund , Germany, where the chorus has performed bi-annually since 2001. The chorus also runs

7504-467: The Thames at Lambeth, dated 1697, suggest that schooner rig was common in England and Holland by the end of the 17th century. The Royal Transport was an example of a large British-built schooner, launched in 1695 at Chatham. The schooner rig was used in vessels with a wide range of purposes. On a fast hull, good ability to windward was useful for privateers, blockade runners, slave ships, smaller naval craft and opium clippers. Packet boats (built for

7616-458: The United States from circa 1880–1920. They mostly carried bulk cargoes such as coal and timber. In yachting, schooners predominated in the early years of the America's Cup . In more recent times, schooners have been used as sail training ships. The type was further developed in British North America starting around 1713. In the 1700s and 1800s in what is now New England and Atlantic Canada schooners became popular for coastal trade, requiring

7728-415: The United States military. In a review in the June 1941 Atlantic Monthly , entitled "The Poison in Our System", he pronounced Songs for John Doe "strictly subversive and illegal", "whether Communist or Nazi financed", and "a matter for the attorney general", observing further that "mere" legal "suppression" would not be sufficient to counteract this type of populist poison, the poison being folk music and

7840-425: The Wallace campaign), and he continued to believe that songs could help people achieve these goals. However, with the ever-growing revelations of Joseph Stalin 's atrocities and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 , he became increasingly disillusioned with Soviet Socialism. He left the CPUSA in 1949, but remained friends with some who did not leave it, although he argued with them about it. On August 18, 1955, Seeger

7952-461: The YCL's members still smarted from Roosevelt and Churchill 's arms embargo on Loyalist Spain (which Roosevelt later called a mistake), and the alliance frayed in the confusing welter of events. A June 16, 1941, review in Time magazine, which, under its owner, Henry Luce , had become very interventionist, denounced the Almanacs' John Doe , accusing it of scrupulously echoing what it called "the mendacious Moscow tune" that "Franklin Roosevelt

8064-418: The beauty of this music firsthand was a "conversion experience". Pete was deeply affected and, after learning basic strokes from Lunsford, spent much of the next four years trying to master the five-string banjo. The teenage Seeger also sometimes accompanied his parents to regular Saturday evening gatherings at the Greenwich Village loft of painter and art teacher Thomas Hart Benton and his wife Rita. Benton,

8176-401: The characteristic driving rhythmic quality associated with the style. Inspired by his mentor Woody Guthrie, whose guitar was labeled " This machine kills fascists ", Seeger emblazoned his banjo head in 1952 with the slogan "This Machine Surrounds Hate and Forces It to Surrender", writing those words on every subsequent banjo he owned. From the late 1950s on, Seeger also accompanied himself on

8288-539: The charts for 13 weeks in 1950 and was covered by many other pop singers. On the flip side of "Irene" was the Israeli song " Tzena, Tzena, Tzena ". Other Weavers hits included "Dusty Old Dust" ("So Long It's Been Good to Know You" by Woody Guthrie) , " Kisses Sweeter Than Wine " (by Hays, Seeger, and Lead Belly), and the Zulu song by Solomon Linda , " Wimoweh " (about Shaka ), among others. The Weavers' performing career

8400-799: The ease with which it could be spread. While the U.S. had not officially declared war on the Axis powers in the summer of 1941, the country was energetically producing arms and ammunition for its allies overseas. Despite the boom in manufacturing this concerted rearming effort brought, African Americans were barred from working in defense plants. Racial tensions rose as Black labor leaders (such as A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin ) and their white allies began organizing protests and marches. To combat this social unrest, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act) on 25 June 1941. The order came three days after Hitler broke

8512-456: The edge of the field, hearing music being made there as well. As Lunsford's daughter would later recall, those country people "held the riches that Dad had discovered. They could sing, fiddle, pick the banjos, and guitars with traditional grace and style found nowhere else but deep in the mountains. I can still hear those haunting melodies drift over the ball park." For the Seegers, experiencing

8624-447: The farm women would bring "suppers" and would vie with each other to see who could feed the troupe most, and after the affair the farmers would have earnest discussions about who would have the honor of taking them home for the night. "They fed us too well", the girls reported. "And we could live the entire winter just by taking advantage of all the offers to spend a week on the farm". In the farmers' homes they talked about politics and

8736-458: The farmers' problems, about antisemitism and Unionism, about war and peace and social security—"and always", the puppeteers report, "the farmers wanted to know what can be done to create a stronger unity between themselves and city workers". They felt the need of this more strongly than ever before, and the support of the CIO in their milk strike has given them a new understanding and a new respect for

8848-592: The fast conveyance of passengers and goods) were often schooners. Fruit schooners were noted for their quick passages, taking their perishable cargoes on routes such as the Azores to Britain. Some pilot boats adopted the rig. The fishing vessels that worked the Grand Banks of Newfoundland were schooners, and held in high regard as an outstanding development of the type. In merchant use, the ease of handling in confined waters and smaller crew requirements made schooners

8960-662: The founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. In the PBS American Masters episode " Pete Seeger: The Power of Song ", Seeger said it was he who changed the lyric from the traditional "We will overcome" to the more singable "We shall overcome". Seeger was born on May 3, 1919, at the French Hospital , in New York City. His family, which Seeger called "enormously Christian, in

9072-480: The grounds that this would violate his First Amendment rights: "I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this." Seeger's refusal to answer questions that he believed violated his fundamental constitutional rights led to

9184-641: The late 1950s and early 1960s, Seeger's anti-war songs, such as " Where Have All the Flowers Gone? " (co-written with Joe Hickerson ), " Turn! Turn! Turn! " adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes , and " The Bells of Rhymney " by the Welsh poet Idris Davies (1957), gained wide currency. Seeger was the first person to make a studio recording of " Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream " in 1956. Seeger also

9296-450: The lyrics imply, ensures that a person does not hear what is said to them. To those opposed to continuing the Vietnam War , the phrase implied that "Alby Jay", a loose pronunciation of Johnson's nickname "LBJ", did not listen to anti-war protests as he too had "beans in his ears". During 1966, Seeger and Malvina Reynolds took part in environmental activism. The album God Bless the Grass

9408-565: The mid-1960s when he hosted a regionally broadcast educational folk-music television show, Rainbow Quest . Among his guests were Johnny Cash , June Carter , Reverend Gary Davis , Mississippi John Hurt , Doc Watson , the Stanley Brothers , Elizabeth Cotten , Patrick Sky , Buffy Sainte-Marie , Tom Paxton , Judy Collins , Hedy West , Donovan , The Clancy Brothers , Richard Fariña and Mimi Fariña , Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee , Mamou Cajun Band, Bernice Johnson Reagon ,

9520-559: The most polluted portions of the river. In 2002, Pete Seeger was named a "Clean Water Hero" for his prominent efforts in the passage of the Clean Water Act . His tireless devotion to working through Clearwater and promoting its message to effectively use the law in prosecuting polluters of America's waterways has made the Clean Water Act one of the most successful environmental laws in the country. The EPA said after Seeger's death in 2014 that "the incredible work" of Seeger and

9632-552: The music video and single " God's Counting on Me, God's Counting on You ", which they recorded and filmed on the Clearwater while sailing on the Hudson in 2010. The song references the Deepwater Horizon Gulf oil spill of 2010. Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer-songwriter, musician and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in

9744-498: The non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union, at which time the Communist Party quickly directed its members to get behind the draft and forbade participation in strikes for the duration of the war—angering some leftists. Copies of Songs for John Doe were removed from sale, and the remaining inventory destroyed, though a few copies may exist in the hands of private collectors. The Almanac Singers' Talking Union album, on

9856-436: The other hand, was reissued as an LP by Folkways (FH 5285A) in 1955 and is still available. The following year, the Almanacs issued Dear Mr. President , an album in support of Roosevelt and the war effort. The title song, "Dear Mr. President", was a solo by Pete Seeger, and its lines expressed his lifelong credo: Now, Mr. President, We haven't always agreed in the past, I know, But that ain't at all important now. What

9968-612: The otherwise bookish and withdrawn boy gravitated to the ukulele , becoming adept at entertaining his classmates with it while laying the basis for his subsequent remarkable audience rapport. At thirteen, Seeger enrolled in the Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Connecticut , from which he graduated in 1936. He was selected to attend Camp Rising Sun , the George E. Jonas Foundation 's international summer leadership program. During

10080-737: The phrase "Woody's children", alluding to his associate and traveling companion, Woody Guthrie, who by this time had become a legendary figure. This urban folk-revival movement, a continuation of the activist tradition of the 1930s and 1940s and of People's Songs , used adaptations of traditional tunes and lyrics to effect social change, a practice that goes back to the Industrial Workers of the World or Wobblies' Little Red Song Book , compiled by Swedish-born union organizer Joe Hill (1879–1915) (the Little Red Song Book had been

10192-513: The plight of the river and the earth. Net proceeds went directly to support Clearwater's environmental research, education and advocacy to help preserve and protect the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as communities in the river valley. Music ranged from Blues to Rock, Reggae to Salsa, Bluegrass to Jazz, and Funk to Folk. The festival was cancelled in 2022. In 1984, Seeger founded the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus as

10304-550: The power that lies in solidarity. One summer has convinced us that a minimum of organized effort on the part of city organizations—unions, consumers' bodies, the American Labor Party and similar groups—can not only reach the farmers but weld them into a pretty solid front with city folks that will be one of the best guarantees for progress. That fall, Seeger took a job in Washington, D.C., assisting Alan Lomax ,

10416-662: The progressive City and Country School in Greenwich Village , New York. In 1936, at the age of 17, Pete Seeger joined the Young Communist League (YCL), then at the height of its influence. In 1942, he became a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) itself, but he left in 1949. In the spring of 1941, the twenty-one-year-old Seeger performed as a member of the Almanac Singers along with Millard Lampell, Cisco Houston , Woody Guthrie , Butch Hawes and Bess Lomax Hawes , and Lee Hays. Seeger and

10528-491: The river or drink the water. The activism of folk singer Pete Seeger and the Clearwater led to the area being designated as one of the superfund sites. Clearwater has gained national recognition for its activism starting in the 1970s to force a clean-up of the PCB contamination caused by industrial manufacturing by General Electric and other companies on the river's edge. Other specific Hudson watershed issues with which Clearwater

10640-400: The scheduling of performers and other matters. Two days earlier, there had been a scuffle and a brief exchange of blows between Grossman and Alan Lomax, and the board, in an emergency session, had voted to ban Grossman from the grounds, but had backed off when George Wein pointed out that Grossman also managed highly popular draws Odetta and Peter, Paul and Mary . Seeger has been portrayed as

10752-450: The struggles for unionisation of industrial workers such as miners and automobile workers. Besides Pete Seeger (performing under his own name), members of the Weavers included charter Almanac member Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert , and Fred Hellerman ; later Frank Hamilton , Erik Darling , and Bernie Krause serially took Seeger's place. In the atmosphere of the 1950s red scare, the Weavers' repertoire had to be less overtly topical than that of

10864-470: The summer of 1936, while traveling with his father and stepmother, Pete heard the five-string banjo for the first time at the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in western North Carolina near Asheville , organized by local folklorist , lecturer, and traditional music performer Bascom Lamar Lunsford , whom Charles Seeger had hired for Farm Resettlement music projects. The festival took place in

10976-542: The war, he always answered: "I strummed my banjo." After returning from service, Seeger and others established People's Songs , conceived as a nationwide organization with branches on both coasts and designed to "create, promote and distribute songs of labor and the American People". With Pete Seeger as its director, People's Songs worked for the 1948 presidential campaign of Roosevelt's former Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President, Henry A. Wallace , who ran as

11088-585: The wartime Pan American Union . After World War II , he taught ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale University . Charles and Constance divorced when Pete was seven and in 1932 Charles married his composition student and assistant, Ruth Crawford , now considered by many to be one of the most important modernist composers of the 20th century. Deeply interested in folk music, Ruth had contributed musical arrangements to Carl Sandburg 's extremely influential folk song anthology,

11200-589: Was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School . In 1912, his father, Charles Seeger, was hired to establish the music department at the University of California, Berkeley, but was forced to resign in 1918 because of his outspoken pacifism during World War I . Charles and Constance moved back east, making Charles's parents' estate in Patterson, New York , about 50 miles north of New York City, their base of operations. When baby Pete

11312-429: Was abruptly derailed in 1953, at the peak of their popularity, when blacklisting prompted radio stations to refuse to play their records and all their bookings were canceled. They briefly returned to the stage, however, at a sold-out reunion at Carnegie Hall in 1955 and in a subsequent reunion tour , which produced a hit version of Merle Travis 's " Sixteen Tons ", as well as LPs of their concert performances. " Kumbaya ",

11424-814: Was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to American parents. Charles established the first musicology curriculum in the United States at the University of California, Berkeley , in 1913; helped found the American Musicological Society ; and was a key founder of the academic discipline of ethnomusicology . Pete's mother, Constance de Clyver Seeger (née Edson), raised in Tunisia and trained at the Paris Conservatory of Music ,

11536-575: Was broadcast when Seeger appeared again on the Smothers' Brothers show on February 25, 1968. At the November 15, 1969, Vietnam Moratorium March on Washington, DC, Seeger led 500,000 protesters in singing John Lennon 's song " Give Peace a Chance " as they rallied across from the White House. Seeger's voice carried over the crowd, interspersing phrases like "Are you listening, Nixon ?" between

11648-592: Was censored by CBS. In November 1976, Seeger wrote and recorded the anti-death penalty song "Delbert Tibbs", about the death-row inmate Delbert Tibbs , who was later exonerated . Seeger wrote the music and selected the words from poems written by Tibbs. Seeger also supported the Jewish Camping Movement. He came to Surprise Lake Camp in Cold Spring, New York , over the summer many times. He sang and inspired countless campers. Pete Seeger

11760-744: Was closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement and in 1963 helped organize a landmark Carnegie Hall concert, featuring the youthful Freedom Singers , as a benefit for the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee. This event, and Martin Luther King Jr. 's March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August of that same year, brought the civil rights anthem " We Shall Overcome " to wide audiences. He sang it on

11872-552: Was eighteen months old, they set out with him and his two older brothers in a homemade trailer to bring musical uplift to the working people in the American South. Upon their return, Constance taught violin and Charles taught composition at the New York Institute of Musical Art (later Juilliard ), whose president, family friend Frank Damrosch , was Constance's adoptive "uncle". Charles also taught part-time at

11984-443: Was head (1938–1953). Lomax also encouraged Seeger's folk-singing vocation, and Seeger was soon appearing as a regular performer on Alan Lomax and Nicholas Ray 's weekly Columbia Broadcasting show Back Where I Come From (1940–41) alongside Josh White , Burl Ives , Lead Belly , and Woody Guthrie (whom he had first met at Will Geer 's Grapes of Wrath benefit concert for migrant workers on March 3, 1940). Back Where I Come From

12096-488: Was launched in 1969. Built of traditional plank-on-frame wooden construction, the sloop is 76 feet (23 m) in length on deck , 25 feet (7.6 m) in beam and can hold up to 70 tons of cargo . The sloop rig consists of a single mast and topmast which together rise to a height of 108 feet (33 m). A 65-foot (20 m) long main boom and 45-foot (14 m) gaff carry a 3,000-square-foot (280 m) mainsail . A 28-foot (8.5 m) long bowsprit carries

12208-569: Was one of the earliest backers of Bob Dylan ; he was responsible for urging A&R man John Hammond to produce Dylan's first LP on Columbia , and for inviting him to perform at the Newport Folk Festival , of which Seeger was a board member. There was a widely repeated story that Seeger was so upset over the extremely loud amplified sound that Dylan, backed by members of the Butterfield Blues Band , brought into

12320-480: Was released in January of that year and became the first album in history wholly dedicated to songs about environmental issues. Their politics were informed by the same ideologies of nationalism, populism, and criticism of big business. Seeger attracted wider attention starting in 1967 with his song " Waist Deep in the Big Muddy ", about a captain —referred to in the lyrics as "the big fool"—who drowned while leading

12432-712: Was subpoenaed to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Alone among the many witnesses after the 1950 conviction and imprisonment of the Hollywood Ten for contempt of Congress, Seeger refused to plead the Fifth Amendment (which would have asserted that his testimony might be self-incriminating) and instead, as the Hollywood Ten had done, refused to name personal and political associations on

12544-457: Was unique in having a racially integrated cast. The show was a success, but was not picked up by commercial sponsors for nationwide broadcasting because of its integrated cast. During the war , Seeger also performed on nationwide radio broadcasts by Norman Corwin . From 1942 to 1945, Seeger served in the Army , as an Entertainment Specialist. In 1949, Seeger worked as the vocal instructor for

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