bruce springsteen is about to release a cd of covers of pete seeger folk songs. having done a great cover of "we shall Overcome" on the first pete seeger tribute collection ("where have all the flowers Gone"- http://www.appleseedrec.com), he's now made a whole album.
I've had a bit of preview of iTunes. I have mixed reactions - I'd rather he did "nebraska" than trying to front a gospel choir!
not surprisingly if you know seeger & the weavers (or rather, folk music), there are a number of gospel songs - O Mary Dont You Weep, Jacob's Ladder, and We Shall Overcome.
we saw pete live once in durham, north carolina. An amazing baritone, aging banjo picking and an church-like atmosphere as people sang along.
as I'm re-reading simon frith's "performing rites", I am appreciating the interplay of folk, classical and pop music a lot more, not only musically but culturally and politically. (sounds like a deep thought, doesnt it..... actually, I've re-read the first chapter three times.)
of course, Seeger, was a musical sponge, and many of his popular folk songs were gathered from all over the place. Still, he is a big link to Woody Guthrie and shared his social conscience, and Bob Dylan, Billy Bragg and a host of others carry that. That side of the folk tradition stirs me to the core, and the simple, romantic songs may seem naive today, but at the same time they rely on succulent and succinct poetry and hummable tunes.
I often play the tune of "The Water is Wide" to the words of "When I Survey The Wondrous Cross". (I don't know what that had to do with the preceding paragraph! But the words and tune are a great match - except that the words don't quite fit the tune..... "When I surve-e-e-e-e-e-e-y, the wondrous cro-o-o-o-o-o-o-s, on which the pri-i-i-i-i-i-i-nce.... you get the idea)
The Appleseed tributes to Seeger are remarkable. How's this for a list of artists - Bruce Cockburn, Ani Di Franco, Billy Bragg, Indigo Girls, Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, Dar Williams, the McCarrigles, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Donovan, Roger McGuinn, Bonnie Raiit, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Natalie Merchant, .... not to mention Studs Terkel and Tim Robbins.
and besides that, how cool to have a tribute album to yourself with your songs sung by Tish Hinojosa, Guardabarranco, The Minus 5, and Vedran Smailovic! I had never heard of any of them, but Vedran is the cellist "who refused to stop playing his cello on the streets of Sarajevo after his opera theatre was destroyed and 22 of his neighbours were killed by a mortar. When asked by a CNN reporter if he was crazy for playing his cello while Sarajevo was being shelled, Smailovic replied, "You ask me 'am I crazy for playing the cello,' why do you not ask if they are crazy for shelling Sarajevo?" His version of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" with Tommy Sands and Dolores Keane (both Irish - assuredly old folkers) is very other-worldly.
(I just wish what Jack Black was on the list.... but then I think he's more of a "House of the Rising Sun" man - I can hear him doing that in "School of Folk" - now there's a sequel series waiting to be made...)
OK, call me a nylon string guy (or don't, since I don't play one anymore. my strings are steel! well, bronze and nickel plated, or something like that)
Perhaps the best part of this for me is that Pete Seeger tribute Vol 2 has a Canadian band with the unlikely name of "Moxy Fruvous" singing a song called "Maple Syrup Time". The kids hate it so much that they will not only get out of bed when I play it loud but chase me on foot all the way to school (where I was trying to get them in the first place!).
sure, rap is the new folk, but I'm hearing a sixteen year old in the next room with a head full of ideas playing a nylon string guitar.
we shall overcome? I hope so.
this week we have duncan macleod coming down from queensland to talk about youth spirituality to our degree-level class. we've worked hard on a good ecumenical curriculum and reading list, and yet we're only scratching the surface.
