Pete Seeger

• Genre: Political Folk & Protest Songs
• Hometown: New York City
• Pete Seeger Website

About

Pete Seeger was famous for playing old hobo country banjo folk songs and socially aware narratives of working-class folks. His union anthems and famous five-string banjo playing has influenced every hootenanny crooner from Greenwich Village to North Beach. Toward the end of the 1930s, he joined forces with the late, great Woody Guthrie and a handful of other musicians to form Almanac Singers. Their aim was to promote unions and come down hard on fascism. In the late 1940s, Seeger formed the Weavers, a folk group who made famous such hits as "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene," and "On Top of Old Smokey" before McCarthy-era paranoia put an unceremonious end to their bookings and recording contracts. Today, his contributions to old standards live strong in the interests of folk enthusiasts and anyone who has ever been moved by songs such as "We Shall Overcome," "If I Had a Hammer," and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" a Seeger penned ditty that became a gigantic radio hit when the song was covered by West Coast Folk Rockers, the Byrds.

- Eric Shea