Pete

Pete Seeger | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 16, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Living Music
• ASIN: B0000000V4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #203,180 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Well May the World Go

2. My Rainbow Race

3. Huddie Ledbetter Was a Helluva Man

4. The Water Is Wide

5. All Mixed Up

6. Sailing Down My Golden River

7. Kisses Sweeter Than Wine

8. Living in the Country

9. How Can I Keep from Singing?

10. Garbage

11. The Spider's Web (Natural History)

12. Old Devil Time

13. Of Time and Rivers Flowing

14. In the Evening

15. For Everyone in All the World

16. River of My People

17. Russian Song/Ode to Joy

18. To My Old Brown Earth

Editorial Reviews

CD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Garbage" and Ineffable Beauty Share 5 Stars, April 15, 2000

By 

Bob Zeidler (Charlton, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pete (Audio CD)

Rather recently, Pete Seeger entered his ninth decade. The voice may not be what it once was. But it still goes on, not nearly ready yet to surrender "To My Old Brown Earth." A few years back, when this album was made, it was more than good enough for the retrospective and summation that the album represents. And the message is evergreen, as it always has been.

This album is a labor of love on the part of everyone concerned. But, aside from Pete hisself, credit must go next to Paul Winter, who, over a span of more than 30 years, was an acquaintance first, then a fast friend, and, with the release of the album, collaborator, creative director and executive producer. (There is a fascinating story about the 30-year genesis of this collaboration, complete with an ongoing saga of a Paul Winter classic, "Minuit," which can be found at Winter's Living Music website.)

It is Pete's album, and yet it belongs to all of us, and is surely a gift to all of us as well. I'm one who "came of age" in the turbulent sixties, and can remember well the songs of protest back then. Somehow, those protest songs tended to overwhelm the folk songs that spoke to other issues, or even to no particular issue at all. Pete's got them all covered here.

I absolutely agree with Bill Campbell from Boulder, Colorado below. "The Water is Wide" (#4) and "To My Old Brown Earth" (#18) are very special, as is "Of Time and Rivers Flowing" (#13). What they share in common is the choral mastery of Paul Halley, Winter's long-time Consort keyboardist and composer. Choral arranging (a specialty of Halley's) and singing of this level of excellence has a way of giving one the shakes. And it reaches a level of simply ineffable beauty in "To My Own Brown Earth." There must have been those, naysayers all, who predicted that this approach would never work for Pete's music, with Pete's voice. Trust me; it does!

To counterbalance this choral sweetness and serve notice that we're dealing here with Pete Seeger and not the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, there are the rough-hewn classics made famous by Pete and others (Leadbelly included), with a lesson or two on how to reinterpret and juxtapose Stravinsky and Beethoven to rather amusing effect. And then there's "Garbage," an absolutely hilarious cautionary tale on the perils of pollution if ever there were one.

I'm guessing that the "Minuit" saga set out in Paul Winter's recounting of the genesis of "Pete" has a final chapter yet to play out. In my humble opinion, it should be a good one!

Elsewhere, this album is referred to as "the quintessential Pete Seeger." I cannot do other than agree; if you could only have one, this would be it. But, taking a page from other folkies of fame, my favorite moniker is "the quintessential P, P, P & M", for Pete, Paul, Paul and Joanie Madden, who blows a mean pennywhistle in "Of Time and Rivers Flowing" and elsewhere.

Bob Zeidler

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Late recordings of many early favorites..., February 7, 2002

By 

William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pete (Audio CD)

This is Pete in old age, coming up with new tricks, new licks, new musical friends, new sound combinations...and just about everything works! Recorded in 1996, but the old familiar Pete is represented with grace, power, humor and his trademark hospitality. "Well May the World Go", "Hudie Ledbetter" and "The Water is Wide" all sound great. "How Can I Keep From Singing?" and "Old Devil Time" and "To Everyone in All the World" are gems. If you grew up with Pete, followed him in the 60's as so many of us did, and are glad he is still alive and singing, buy this one before it goes out of print. There are too many Seeger CD's to say "If you can only afford one, choose this one"---but this is a nice choice for the folks who don't care so much about Civil Rights anthems or left-wing songs recorded when it was risky to do so.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good stuff, February 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Pete (Audio CD)

Pete Seeger's voice definitely sounds older, but oh how I enjoy this CD! These are new recordings of old favorites, worth owning even if you have older recordings of them. There's a nice balance between the structure that the choirs (which sing with him) provide, and his expressive interpretation of songs which he obviously loves and knows intimately. The liner notes are interesting reading, too!