Pete Seeger’s 90th Birthday filled with Guests
This past Sunday a legend turned 90 years old. He chose to celebrate it with friends and fans doing what he loves – playing live music. The singer-songwriter has written many influential and popular songs and been associated with some of the top acts in music history. There’s no doubt that he had a lot of impact on the folk scene, and music in general. To show appreciation for him a concert was held featuring some big names like Richie Havens, Bruce Springsteen, and Eddie Vedder. The full list of artists who attended is astounding and was reportedly quite the experience. While I couldn’t attend myself….I bring you some of the reviews found on the internet. If you want to read the full review just click the link that follows the excerpt.
Pete Seeger has always maintained that his greatest joy as a performer is to lead others in sing-alongs. At his 90th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden last night he must have been ecstatic since for nearly four and a half hours he and 51 other artists transformed the massive arena into an intimate campfire sing-along, where toddlers, senior citizens and everyone in between belted “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” “This Land is Your Land,” “Turn Turn Turn” and many others songs Seeger wrote or popularized over his seven-decade career. “There is no such thing as a wrong note,” Seeger said after leading a group rendition of “Amazing Grace” midway through the show, “just as long as you’re singing along.”
from RollingStone.com
Many of those paying homage last night hailed from the early stages of Seeger’s influence, including Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton and Richie Havens. Also strongly represented were stars who made it big in the ’70s like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Emmylou Harris and Kris Kristofferson.
Sunday night’s event – whose profits went toward Seeger’s long-running pet cause to clean up the Hudson River – also brought out some ’90s stars, including ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, Rufus Wainwright and Teddy Thompson.
From NY Daily News
Mr. Seeger led the crowd in “Amazing Grace,” calling out lines in a spooky, hole-filled, appealingly weathered voice. It was one of several brawny, moving exercises in mass vocalizing: “We Shall Overcome,” “This Land Is Your Land,” “Well May the World Go,” “This Little Light of Mine.” (No “Kumbaya,” though — something of a relief.) Ninety years after Mr. Seeger’s birth, 50 or so years after the height of the folk music movement, 40 years after the civil rights movement, and 104 days after the swearing-in of the country’s first black president, those songs no longer sound defiant or expectant, but instead matter-of-fact.
From NYTimes
There was an appropriate egalitarianism on display Sunday at the 90th birthday tribute concert to Pete Seeger at Madison Square Garden. Superstars including Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and John Mellencamp received no more stage time than such veteran acts as Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Richie Havens and many others. The 4 1/2-hour show, thankfully filmed for broadcast on PBS in the summer, paid suitable tribute to the folk music legend and tireless political activist.
Sounds like a great show. I’ll try to get some videos/audio up if I can find any.
