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Biography
Infobox musical artist | name = Peggy Seeger| image = Peggy Seeger Salford 2011.jpg| caption = Seeger in Salford in 2011| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name = Margaret Seeger| alias =| birth_date = birth date and age|mf=yes|1935|6|17|| death_date =| origin = New York City , United States|USA | instrument = Banjo , guitar, dulcimer, concertina, autoharp, piano.| genre = Folk music|Folk | occupation = musician , singing|singer | Residence = United States| years_active = 1955--present| label = Folkways Records|Folkways , Rounder, Argo, Riverside, Appalseed| associated_acts = Ewan MacColl| website =| notable_instruments = Banjo Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935, New York City ) is an United States|American Folk music|folksinger . She is also well known in United Kingdom|Britain , where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, the singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl .
First American period
Seeger's father was Charles Seeger (1886& ndash;1979), an important folklorist and musicologist; her mother was Seeger's second wife, Ruth Crawford-Seeger|Ruth Porter Crawford (1901& ndash;1953), a modernist composer who was one of the first women to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship . One of her brothers was Mike Seeger and the well-known Pete Seeger is her half-brother. One of her first recordings was American Folk Songs for Children (1955), considered one of her most enduring and probably the best-selling collection of children's song s ever recorded.
In the 1950s, left-leaning singers such as Paul Robeson and The Weavers began to find that life became difficult because of the influence of McCarthyism . Seeger visited Communist China and as a result had her US passport withdrawn; the US State Departmentspaced ndashwhich had been opposed to Seeger's trip to Moscow, where the CIA had monitored the US delegationmdashwas incensed that Seeger had gone to China against official "advice".Cox, Peter. Set into Song: Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker, Peggy Seeger and the Radio Ballads . Labatie Books, 2008. ISBN 0-9551877-1-0, ISBN 978-0-9551877-1-1. P. 73 The authorities had already warned her that her passport would be impounded, effectively barring her from further travel, were she to return to the US. She therefore decided to tour Europespaced ndashlater finding out that she was on a blacklist sent to European governments. Staying in London in 1956, she was accompanying herself on banjo , when Ewan MacColl fell in love with her. Previously married to director and actress Joan Littlewood , MacColl left his second wife, Jean Newlove, to become Seeger's lover. However, in 1958, Seeger's work permit for the UK expired and she was about to be deported. This was narrowly averted by a plan, concocted by MacColl and Seeger, in which she married the folk singer Alex Campbell (singer)|Alex Campbell , in Paris, on January 24, 1959, in what Seeger described as a "hilarious ceremony". This marriage of convenience allowed Seeger to gain British citizenship and continue her relationship with MacColl.Harper, Colin, Dazzling Stranger; Bert Jansch and the British Folk and Blues Revival , Bloomsbury, 2006. ISBN 0-7475-8725-6. p.96 MacColl and Seeger were later married (in 1977), following his divorce from Newlove. They remained together until his death in 1989. They had three children: Neill, Calum, and Kitty. They recorded and released several albums together on Folkways Records , along with Seeger's solo albums and other collaborations with the Seeger Family and the Seeger Sisters.
The documentary film A Kind of Exile was a profile of Seeger and also featured Ewan MacColl. The film was directed and produced by John Goldschmidt for ATV and shown on ITV in the UK.
Two social critics
Together with MacColl, Seeger founded The Critics Group , a "master class" for young singers performing traditional songs or to compose new songs using traditional song structures (or, as MacColl called them, "the techniques of folk creation"). The Critics Group evolved into a performance ensemble seeking to perform satirical songs in a mixture of theatre, comedy and song, which eventually created a series of annual productions called "The Festival of Fools" (named for a traditional British Isles event in which greater freedom of expression was allowed for the subjects of the king than was permitted during most of the year). Seeger and MacColl performed and recorded as a duo and as solo artists; MacColl wrote " The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face " in Seeger's honour (and did so during a long-distance phone call between the two while Seeger was performing in America and MacColl was barred from traveling to the U.S. with her due to his radical political views). None of the couple's numerous albums use any electric or electronic instrumentation. Whilst MacColl wrote many songs about work and against war and prejudice, Seeger (who also wrote such songs) sang about women's issues, with many of her songs becoming anthems of the women's movement . Her most memorable was "I'm Gonna Be an Engineer".Included in: Henderson, Kathy, et al. (ed.) (1982) My Song is My Own . London: Pluto Press ISBN 0-86104-033-3; pp. 159-162. "Composed 1972 .. the words take some fitting into this rather skeletal tune but if not sung too fast the song sings well." There were two major projects dedicated to the Child Ballads . The first was The Long Harvest (10 volumes 1966 - 1975). The second was Blood and Roses (5 volumes, 1979 & ndash; 1983). She visited the women's camp at RAF Greenham Common|Greenham Common , where protests against U.S. cruise missile s were concentrated. For them she wrote "Carry Greenham Home". Seeger ran a record label "Blackthorne" from 1976 to 1988.
In recent years
After the fall of the Soviet Union , the U.S. authorities began to soften their attitude towards Seeger. She returned to the United States in 1994 to live in Asheville , North Carolina . Seeger has continued to sing about women's issues. One of her most popular recent albums is Love Will Linger On (1995). She has published a collection of 150 of her songs from before 1998. In 2006, Peggy Seeger relocated to Boston , Massachusetts , to accept a part-time teaching position at Northeastern University . In 2008, she began producing music videos pertaining to the Presidential campaigns, making them available through a YouTube page.
Seeger identifies as bisexual and contributed an essay to Getting Bi: Voices of Bisexuals Around the World . In it she details a relationship she began with Irene Pyper-Scott after Ewan MacColl died. http://www.gaybookblog.net/2005/10/getting-bi-new-anthology-on.html
After nearly two decades of living in the United States, Seeger has moved back to the United Kingdom in order to be nearer to her children.
1964: ''Who's Going to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (UK version); US version by Tom Paley and Peggy Seeger with Claudia Paley
References
Further reading
MacColl, Ewan (1998) The Essential Ewan MacColl Songbook: sixty years of songmaking ; ed. Peggy Seeger. New York: Oak Publications
Harker, Ben (2007) Class Act: the Cultural and Political Life of Ewan MacColl . London: Pluto Press ISBN 978-0-7453-2165-3 (chapters: 1. Lower Broughton—-2. Red Haze—-3. Welcome, Comrade—-4. Browned Off—-5. A Richer, Fuller Life—-6. Towards a People's Culture—-7. Croydon, Soho, Moscow, Paris—-8. Bard of Beckenham—-9. Let a Hundred Flowers Blossom—-10. Sanctuary—-11. Endgame)
External links
http://www.pegseeger.com Official site
http://www.appleseedmusic.com/peggyseeger/ Biography from Appleseed Music
http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi? ucin1021638964 Thesis Publication on Peggy Seeger
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.
Persondata | NAME =Seeger, Peggy | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =June 17, 1935 | PLACE OF BIRTH = | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Seeger, Peggy Category:1935 births Category:Living people Category:People from New York City Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American female singers Category:American folk singers Category:Bisexual musicians Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:Seeger family Category:American feminists Category:Feminist musicians
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