For Pete's Sake

Pete Seeger died today at the age of 94.  I'm not going to go into a long biography of the legendary folksingers accomplishments.  There will be plenty of those in the coming days.  I'll just say that I happily got the chance to see him in concert at UCLA, performing with Arlo Guthrie, and it was a total joy.  What I most remember is that not only did he insist on getting the audience singing on almost every song, but that you got the sense something would be missing if you weren't singing along.  There are a handful of people I'm glad to say I saw perform live, and Pete Seeger is on that list.

I'll also say if you want to celebrate Pete Seeger, or learn more about him, watch the documentary Wasn't That a Time, an utterly joyful, life-affirming film about a reunion of The Weavers in the 1980s.  Or track down the American Masters production that PBS did a few years ago.

Other than that, I'll just post a video of Pete Seeger singing one of his renowned songs.  That explains most of it anyway.  So, here he is singing with his grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger.  (And if you look closely, on the left with long hair and playing guitar, that's Arlo Guthrie.)  And getting the audience to sing along.