Volume 18 , Issue 24

Urban Folk Music (American Folk Music) of Woody Guthrie & Pete Seeger

The "urban folk" music of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger started in 1941 and reached its peak in the early 1950s. It was part of an "urban folk revival" in the late 1950s and early 1960s, featuring pop-folk acts such as the Kingston Trio and peter, Paul & Mary. It is the music that is referred to as "folk music" by most people and epitomized by the music of JoanBaez and Bob Dylan.



Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger (1919-2014) was considered by some as an environmental activist, anti-war activist, children's activist, civil rights activist, guitarist, songwriter, singer. Seeger as an iconic singer songwriter best known for his contributions to the American folk music revival and his political activism.

Seeger was born 3 May 1919 and died at age 94 on January 27, 2014, in New York City. He wrote hits like "Where have all he flowers gone?" and "turn Turn, Turn," which have been recorded by several other artists.

His father, Charles Seeger, taught music for some time at the University of California, Berkeley; and his mother, Constance (de Clyver Edson) Seeger, taught violin at the Juilliard School. Seeker's brother, Mike, would eventually become a member New Lost City Ramblers; his sister, Peggy, would become a performing folk musician, alongside Ewan McColl.

Seeger received an early education at Avon Old Farms, a Connecticut boarding school. Seeger enrolled at Harvard University on a scholarship in 1936, but only after two years, he failed an exam and lost his scholarship, so he dropped out. he spent the rest of the 1930s as a vagabond, hitchhiking and riding on freight trains around the country.

It was by 1940, Seeger focusing on writing music, had organized a folk quartet called the Almanac Singers, which frequently featured Seeker's friend and fellow folk musician, Woody Guthrie. The Almanac Singers released several albums in the early 1940s. In 1942 the group's musical progress was stopped short. Seeger was drafted into the Army to aid the country in battle during World War II, and the group disbanded not long after.

It was in 1943, Seeger married Toshi Aline Ohta, whom he'd met at a dance in the late 1930s.

After World War II ended in 1945, Seeger went back to his musical career, performing folk songs and helping found the magazine "Sing Out!" It was a few years later in 1948, he formed the Weavers, which included Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Kellerman. The group produced several albums of standard folk songs in the early 1950s—among them "On Top of Old Smoky," "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and "The Wreck of the John B"—and even appeared in a 1951 film musical, Disc Jockey. The band also wrote and recorded several original songs, including "If I Had a Hammer" (1949) and "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" (1950).

The Weavers' success was halted, however, when speculation rose regarding Seeger's leftist political ideals, culminating with the band's designation as a Communist group by FBI informant Harvey Matusow (who later retracted his statement). The negative press surrounding Seeger and his politics deepened in 1961, when he was convicted for contempt of Congress—a judgment that was based on earlier questioning by the House Committee on Un-American Activities regarding Seeger's political activities as well as his subsequent and repeated refusal to answer to those claims. Seeger's musical career seemed even less promising following the conviction, which would be overturned in an appeal in 1962.



Despite the controversy surrounding him, Seeger continued to perform and record as a solo artist during this time, producing such hit songs as "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" (1961) and "Turn, Turn, Turn" (1962), which was later released as a single by folk-rock group the Byrds on their album Turn! Turn! Turn! (1965).
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