(USA)

La leggenda del folk americano

Mike Seeger ha dedicato la sua vita a cantare e suonare la musica delle montagne del Sud degli USA, a produrre documentari ed ad organizzare concerti di musicisti, cantanti e danzatori tradizionali.
Egli canta e suona una varietà di stili con banjo, chitarra violino popolare, mandolino, autoharp, scacciapensieri, arpa francese, dulcimer, flauto di Pan ed altri strumenti di supporto. Sin dal 1960 tiene concerti in USA ed all'Estero; ha registrato più di 50 LP per Folkways, Rounder, Flying Fish, Arhoolie, Vanguard, ecc. Il suo hobby più grande è suonare sia solo che con gli amici e danzare la musica di stile tradizionale.
Nato nel 1933, Mike Seeger risiede nel Maryland, vicino a Washington, DC. I suoi genitori, compositori e musicologi, Charles e Ruth Crawford Seeger, hanno educato Mike e le sue tre sorelle, Peggy, Barbara e Penny, alla musica folk tradizionale così come il fratello Pete.
Da bambino ha ascoltato una gran quantità di vecchie registrazioni di musiche tradizionali ed il canto in famiglia era un'attività quotidiana. Egli ha iniziato a suonare all'età di 17 anni, a vent'anni raccolse con un registratore dei brani di musica tradizionale e produsse il suo primo LP Folkways di documenti sonori ed a 23 anni iniziò a registrare con sua sorella Peggy.
Egli ha assorbito gli stili musicali tradizionali attraverso il contatto con maestri come Elizabeth Cotten, Maybelle Carter, Dock Boggs a Eck Robertson. E' stato un fondatore della prima old time string band, la «New Lost City Ramblers» (1958-1979).
Musicista a tempo pieno sin dal 1960, Mike ha attraversato gli USA, l'Europa, l'Africa, l'Australia, la Nuova Zelanda ed il Giappone, sia solo che con la «New Lost City Ramblers»; si è esibito con artisti tradizionali come Tommy Jarrel o Roscoe Holcomb ed è direttore di festival di musica tradizionale. Egli canta una gran quantità di canti rurali e suona numerosi strumenti.
Ha prodotto più di 30 album di documenti di musica tradizionale e 30 album di sua musica.

Discografia

• FOLKWAYS (see note on Folkways recordings below)
FA 2325 Oldtime Country Music (1962)
FH 5273 Tipple, Loom and Rail: Songs of the Industrialization of the
South (1965) Notes by Archie Green

• VANGUARD
VSD 79150 Mike Seeger (1964)*

• MERCURY
SRM 1-627 Music from True Vine (1971)*
SRM 1-685 Second Annual Farewell Reunion (1973)*

• ROUNDER
0262 Fresh Oldtime - String Band Music (1988)
0278 Solo - Oldtime Country Music (1991) Grammy Nominee
0313 Third Annual Farewell Reunion (1994) Grammy Nominee
0383 Way Down in North Carolina (1996) with Paul Brown

• SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
40107 Southern Banjo Sounds (1998) Grammy Nominee
40136 True Vine (2003)
Mike Seeger with the New Lost City Ramblers

• SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
SF 40036 The New Lost City Ramblers: The Early Years, 1958-1962.
SF 40040 The New Lost City Ramblers: Volume II, 1963-1973, Out Standing in
Their Field.
SF 40098 There Ain't No Way Out (1997) Grammy Nominee

• FOLKWAYS (Originally issued as LPs, available on cassette or CD by request; see note on Folkways recordings below):
FA 2396 New Lost City Ramblers (1958)
FA 2397 New Lost City Ramblers, Volume 2 (1959)
FA 2398 New Lost City Ramblers, Volume 3 (1961)
FA 2399 New Lost City Ramblers, Volume 4 (1961)
FA 2395 New Lost City Ramblers, Volume 5 (1962, released 1963)
FC 7064 Old Timey Songs for Children (1959, originally a 10" disc)
FH 5264 Songs from the Depression (1959)
FA 2494 Tom Paley, John Cohen and Mike Seeger Sing Songs of the New
Lost City Ramblers (1961)
FH 5263 American Moonshine and Prohibition (1962)
FA 2491 Gone to the Country (1963)
FA 2492 String Band Instrumentals (1964)
FA 2496 Rural Delivery Number One (1965)
FTS 31035 Remembrance of Things to Come (1966)
FTS 31027 Modern Times (1968)
FTS 31015 Cousin Emmy with the New Lost City Ramblers (1968)
FTS 31041 On the Great Divide (1973)
EPC 602The New Lost City Ramblers (1961, a 7" disc)
FF 869Earth is Earth (1961, a 7"disc)
EPC 603 Radio Special #1 (1963, a 7" disc)

• FLYING FISH (Rounder)
FF 70090 20th Anniversary Concert, with Elizabeth Cotten, Highwoods
String Band, Pete Seeger & the Green Grass Cloggers. (1978) Grammy
Nominee

• ROUNDER
0481 40 Years of Concert Recordings (2001)

• VANGUARD
77011-2 The New Lost City Ramblers & Friends (1963-5, released 1994) with
Cousin Emmy, Maybelle Carter, Eck Robertson, Roscoe Holcomb, Dock
Boggs and Sam & Kirk McGee.
Mike Seeger with Others
• Acoustic Disc ACD 37 Retrograss David Grisman, John Hartford, and Mike Seeger (1999) Grammy Nominee
• Argo DA 80 Mike and Peggy Seeger (1966)*
• Rounder 8001 American Folksongs for Children with Peggy
Seeger (1977) 2 CD set
• Rounder 0268/9 American Folksongs for Christmas with Penny and Peggy
Seeger and members of their families (1989) 2 CD set
• Rounder 8023/4 Animal Folksongs for Children - and Other People. Penny,
Barbara, Peggy & Mike Seeger, and their children. (1992) 2 CD set
• King (Japan) SKK 662 Mike and Alice Seeger in Concert (1970)*
• Arhoolie 9003 Strange Creek Singers (1968-70, reissued on CD 1997)
• Greenhays GR 704 Alice and Mike (1980)*
• Flying Fish 415 Old Time Music Dance Party A.Roebic & the Exertions:
Molsky, Brown, McMillian, Seeger & Newhall (1986)
Field Collections Recorded and/or Edited by Mike Seeger

• SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
SF 40009 Elizabeth Cotten (1957,1989)
SF 40037 American Banjo, Three Finger & Scruggs Style (1956, 1990)
SF 40038 Mountain Music, Bluegrass Style (1958, 1990)
SF 40022 The Country Gentlemen (1959, 1990)
SF 40097 Close To Home, Old-time Music From Mike Seeger's Collection - 1952-1967 (1997)
SF 40108 Dock Boggs: His Folkways Years 1963-1968 (1998)

• FOLKWAYS (Originally issued as LPs, available on cassette or CD by request; see note on Folkways recordings below):
FA 2314 American Banjo Tunes and Songs in the 'Scruggs' Style (1956)
(remastered with a few items deleted and addition of much
previously unissued material on #40036)
FA 2315 The Stoneman Family & Old Time Southern Music (1957)
FG 3526 Elizabeth Cotten (1957) (reissued on #40009)
FA 2318 Mountain Music, Bluegrass Style (1958) (remastered with previously unissued material on #40038)
FA 2409 The Country Gentlemen (1959) (reissued on #40022)
FA 2433 The Lilly Brothers and Don Stover (1961)
FA 2434 The 37th Old Time Fiddler's Convention at Union Grove, NC (1961)
FA 2365 Mountain Music Played on the Autoharp (1956-61)
FA 2363 Roscoe Holcomb & Wade Ward (1956-61) co-recorded and edited with E Davidson & J Cohen)
FA 2351 Dock Boggs, Legendary Singer & Banjo Player (1963)
FA 2379 McGee Brothers & Arthur Smith, Oldtimers of the Grand Ole Opry (1957)
FH 5458 Dock Boggs: Edited Interviews (1963)
FA 2392 Dock Boggs, Volume 2 (1964)
FTS 31003 Elizabeth Cotten, Volume 2 (1965-6)
FTS 31007 McGee Brothers & Arthur Smith, Milk 'em in the Evening Blues (1965)
AH 3902 (Asch) Kilby Snow: Country Songs and Tunes with Autoharp (1966)
AH 3903 (Asch) Dock Boggs, Volume 3 (1963-8)
FA 2436 Berkeley Farms: Oldtime and Country-Style Music of Berkeley,
California. Various artists. (1970)
FA 3537 Elizabeth Cotten, Volume 3: When I'm Gone (1965-78)
RBF RECORDS
RF 54 Dock Boggs, His Original Recordings (1983)

• ARHOOLIE
9009 Sam McGee: Grand Dad of the Country Guitar Pickers (1969-70)

• COUNTY
202 Eck Robertson, Famous Cowboy Fiddler (1992)*

• ROUNDER
0299 Lesley Riddle Meets the Carter Family (1993)

• VOYAGER
322 Louis Boudreault, Oldtime Fiddler of Chicoutimi, Quebec. Co-recorded
with Alice Gerrard (1977)
Videotape

• VESTAPOL
13008 Mike Seeger - Fret 'n' Fiddle (1988, 1994)
Film/Videotape

• AGINSKY PRODUCTIONS
Homemade American Music Mike Seeger, Alice Gerrard, Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb, Lily May Ledford, Elizabeth Cotten, Hank Bradley, Tracy Schwarz, Dewey Balfa, Irene Herrmann, Stefan Senders, Jody Stecher, many others. (1978)
Books

• MUSIC SALES CORPORATION
Old-Time String Band Songbook (formerly The New Lost City Ramblers
Songbook) edited by Mike Seeger & John Cohen, 1964
Video Recording and Book

• FLOWER FILMS (10341 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito,CA 94530)
FF 1150 Talking Feet a 90 minute documentary videocassette and 142 page
book on traditional solo southern dance: flatfoot, buck, hoedown & tap. (1992)

Instructional Recordings and Booklets

• HOMESPUN TAPES
(PO Box 340, Woodstock, NY 12498 Phone 1-800-338-2737 or 1-914-246-2550; website www.homespuntapes.com)

Audio:
Autoharp (CS)
Old Time Country Mandolin (CD)

Video:
VD-SEE-BJ01 Old-time Banjo Styles. with Etta Baker, Greg Hooven, Kirk Sutphin, Joe & Odell Thompson, & Doc Watson. (1994)
VDZ-SB01 Southern Banjo Styles, Volume I (2000)
VDZ-SB02 Southern Banjo Styles, Volume II (2001)
VDZ-SB03 Southern Banjo Styles, Volume III (2002)
VD-SEG-CF01 Guitar Styles of the Carter Family, with Janette Carter (2000)

 

Reviews

"In brushing the dust of time from American folk music, Mike Seeger illuminates the roots of contemporary music and champions their strength"
Dan Bottstein, Billboard

"Clean and crisp as any acoustic music now being played . . . Here is an American artist standing forth, voice 'well trained', in narratives, in fun, in irony, himself branch and root of the entwined true vine."
Jon Pankake, Rolling Stone

"His instrumental technique borders on the astonishing. He switches easily from guitar to banjo to autoharp to fiddle to mouth harp, singing and foot stomping all the while. Just playing with authenticity and style is a trick in itself, but Seeger does it with class and jovial spirit."
Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner

 

Honors, Awards, Grants, Etc.

Heritage Award, 2004 Uncle Dave Macon Days Festival, Murfreesboro, TN

The Society for American Music’s Honorary Membership Award, 2003

Master Music Maker award conferred by The Swannanoa Gathering and Warren Wilson College, 2003

Artist in Residence, College of William and Mary, Spring 2003

Special Recognition by Rockbridge Mountain Music and Dance Festival, 2001

The Rex Foundation's 1995 Ralph J. Gleason Award

Guggenheim Fellow, 1984

Smithsonian Institution Visiting Scholar Research Position, 1983

National Endowment for the Arts Grantee, 1975, 1982, 1984, and 1987

Founding member of New Lost City Ramblers, 1958-present

Director: American Old Time Music Festival, 1975-78;

Smithsonian American Folklife Company, 1968-76

Member, Board of Directors: Newport Folk Festival, 1963-67;

National Folk Festival, 1972-78;

Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project, 1973-86;

Trustee, John Edwards Memorial Foundation, 1962-present

Special consultant: Smithsonian, Newport, National, Mariposa and other major folk festivals.

National Endowment for the Arts (Member of Jazz/Folk/Ethnic Music Panel, 1973-77);

International Communications Agency; New World Records

Guest Lecturer, English Department, California State University, Fresno, 1974

First Prize, Banjo Category, Old Fiddlers Convention, Galax, Virginia, 1958