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Biography
Infobox musical artist | name = Mike Seeger| image =| caption =| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name =| alias =| birth_date = birth date|mf=yes|1933|8|15|| Died = death date and age|2009|8|7|1933|8|15 Lexington, Virginia , United States | origin = New York City , United States|USA | instrument = autoharp , banjo , fiddle , Appalachian dulcimer|dulcimer , guitar , mandolin , dobro , jaw harp , pan pipes , shaker , acoustic bass | genre = Old-time music|Old-time , Folk music|folk | occupation = musician , singer | Residence =| years_active =| label = Folkways Records|Folkways , Rounder Records|Rounder , Arhoolie Records|Arhoolie , Argo Records|Argo , Greenhays Records|Greenhays , 5-String Productions Records|5-String Productions , Appalseed Records|Appalseed | associated_acts = New Lost City Ramblers , Strange Creek Singers , Peggy Seeger | website =| notable_instruments = Mike Seeger (August 15, 1933ndashAugust 7, 2009) was an United States|American folk music ian and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp , banjo , fiddle , Appalachian dulcimer|dulcimer , guitar, harmonica|mouth harp , mandolin , dobro , Jew's harp|jaw harp , and Pan flute|pan pipes . Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger , produced more than 30 documentary recordings, and performed in more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make known the caretakers of culture that inspired and taught him.cite web|work =National Endowment for the Arts, National Heritage Fellowships|title=Mike Seeger: Musician, Cultural Scholar, and Advocate|url= http://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php? id=2009_10|quote=Bess Lomax Hawes NEA National Heritage Fellowship|publisher=National Endowment for the Arts|year=2009|accessdate=August 8, 2009
Family and early life
Seeger was born in New York and grew up in Maryland and Washington D.C. His father, Charles Louis Seeger|Charles Louis Seeger Jr. , was a composer and pioneering ethnomusicologist , investigating both American folk and non-Western music. His mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger , was a composer . http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html? res=990CE6D81E31E233A2575AC1A9649D946096D6CF 1911 New York Times wedding announcement for Charles Louis Seeger and Ruth Crawford Seeger. His eldest half-brother, Charles Seeger III, was a radio astronomer, and his next older half-brother, John Seeger, taught for years at the Dalton School in Manhattan. His next older half brother is Pete Seeger . His uncle, Alan Seeger , a poet, was killed during the First World War . His sister Peggy Seeger , also a well-known folk performer, was married for many years to British folk singer Ewan MacColl . His sister, singer Penny Seeger, married John Cohen (musician)|John Cohen , a member of Mike's musical group, New Lost City Ramblers . http://weeklywire.com/ww/08-18-97/austin_music_feature3.html A Vision Shared, Austin Chronicle, weeklywire.com, 18 August 1997. Retrieved on 2 May 2009. Seeger was a self-taught musician who began playing stringed instruments at the age of 18.
Seeger#Seeger family|The family moved to Washington D.C. in 1936 after his father's appointment to the music division of the Resettlement Administration . While in Washington D.C., Ruth Seeger worked closely with John Lomax|John and Alan Lomax at the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress to preserve and teach American folk music. Ruth Seeger's arrangements and interpretations of American Traditional folk songs in the 1930s, 40s and 50s are well regarded.Citation needed|date=August 2009
Musical career
At about the age of 20, Seeger began collecting songs by traditional musicians on a tape recorder. Folk musicians such as Lead Belly , Woody Guthrie , John Jacob Niles , and others were frequent guests in the Seeger home.cite news|url= http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/feature_21A.aspx |title=Mike Seeger: American folk revivalist and historian|year=2007|work=Smithsonian Global Sound |publisher=Smithsonian Institution|accessdate=August 8, 2009Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot
In 1958 he co-founded the New Lost City Ramblers , an Old-time music|old-time String band (American music)|string band in New York City , during the Roots revival|Folk Revival . The other founding members included John Cohen (musician)|John Cohen and Tom Paley . Paley later left the group and was replaced by Tracy Schwarz . The New Lost City Ramblers directly influenced countless musicians in subsequent years. The Ramblers distinguished themselves by focusing on the traditional playing styles they heard on old 78rpm records of musicians recorded during the 1920s and 1930s. Tracy was also in Mike's other band, Strange Creek Singers. So was Mike's former wife, Alice Gerrard.
Seeger received six Grammy nominations and was the recipient of four grants from the National Endowment for the Arts . His influence on the folk scene was described by Bob Dylan in his autobiography, Chronicles: Volume One . He was a popular presenter and performer at traditional music gatherings such as Breakin' Up Winter .
Eight days before his 76th birthday, Seeger died at his home in Lexington, Virginia on August 7, 2009, after stopping cancer treatment. cite news|title=Mike Seeger Cleared Paths, Showed Us The Way|url= http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=111693752|work = NPR Music|first=Paul|last= Brown|publisher=National Public Radio|date=August 8, 2009|accessdate=August 9, 2009 cite news|title=Folk Music's Mike Seeger Dead|url= http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php? storyId=111693752|work = NPR Music|first=Paul|last= Brown|publisher= National Public Radio|date=August 8, 2009|accessdate=August 9, 2009
Discography
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=505 Old Time Country Music (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1962 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=1852 Modern Times (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1968 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=1846 New Lost City Ramblers with Cousin Emmy (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1968 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=1857 Remembrance of Things to Come (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1973 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=1863 On the Great Divide (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1975 )
Earth is Earth (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1978 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=377 Tom Paley, John Cohen, Mike Seeger Sing Songs of the New Lost City Ramblers (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1978 )
20th Anniversary Concert, with Elizabeth Cotten, Highwoods String Band, Pete Seeger & the Green Grass Cloggers (FLYING FISH (Rounder)) ( 1978 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=2273 The Early Years, 1958-1962 (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1991 )
http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=2307 Out Standing in their Field: The New Lost City Ramblers, Vol 2, 1963-1973 (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1993 )
'' http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx? itemid=2403 There Ain't No Way Out (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 1997 )
40 Years of Concert Recordings (Rounder) ( 2001 )
50 Years: Where Do You Come From? Where Do You Go? (Smithsonian Folkways) ( 2008 )
Selected Films featuring Mike Seeger
"Homemade American Music"(1980) by Yasha Aginsky
"Always Been a Rambler" (2009) by Yasha Aginsky
References
Reflist
External links
http://countrymusicpride.com/mike-seeger Mike Seeger – “Last Known Interview” countrymusicpride.com posted 9-18-2008
http://www.apakistannews.com/mike-seeger-dead-at-75-132961 "Mike Seeger Dead At 75"
http://www.cybergrass.com/modules.php? name=News& file=article& sid=6622 Report of Mike Seeger's death
http://www.thebluegrassblog.com/mike-seeger-to-hospice-care/ Mike Seeger in Hospice July 2009
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/feature_21A.aspx Mike Seeger Folk Revivalist and Historian Featured artist biographical essay on Smithsonian Global Sound site, 2007. Retrieved August, 2009.
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Seegersymposium/ How Can I Keep From Singing? : A Seeger Family Tribute, Library of Congress , American Folklife Center , March 2007 symposium and concert. All events are available as webcasts via the site. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=4St8z3cBEFk 2007 Video released by Smithsonian July 2009 - Mike Seeger discusses & plays "Walking Boss"
http://mikeseeger.info Official site
http://www.downhomeradioshow.com/2008/01/interview-with-mike-seeger/ Internet radio interview with Mike Seeger, he discusses Elizabeth Cotten, Dock Boggs, Henry Thomas, Alan Lomax, the current state of folk music and plays gourd banjo and jaw harp live on air
http://www.alwaysbeenarambler.org/ new (2009) documentary film about the New Lost City Ramblers, with Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tracy Schwarz and others
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/6011622/Mike-Seeger.html Mike Seeger - Daily Telegraph obituary
http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/seeger/3129916 UK online memorial
http://www.aginsky.com/cinema Homemade American Music (1980) - a documentary film by Yasha Aginsky with Mike Seeger and Alice Gerrard, Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb, Lily May Ledford, Elizabeth Cotten, and more
Persondata | NAME =Seeger, Mike | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =August 15, 1933 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH =August 7, 2009 | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Seeger, Mike Category:1933 births Category:2009 deaths Category:American fiddlers Category:American folk musicians Category:Cancer deaths in Virginia Category:People from New York City Category:People from Lexington, Virginia Category:Old-time musicians Category:Autoharp players Category:Appalachian old-time fiddlers Category:Seeger family Category:Jaw harp players
da:Mike Seeger nl:Mike Seeger sv:Mike Seeger
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