Peggy Seeger
Encyclopedia
Margaret "Peggy" Seeger (born June 17, 1935, New York City
) is an American
folksinger
. She is also well known in Britain
, where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl
.
(1886–1979), an important folklorist and musicologist; her mother was Seeger's second wife, Ruth Porter Crawford (1901–1953), 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 Peggy Seeger's 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and as a result had her U.S. passport withdrawn; the US State Departmentwhich had been opposed to Seeger's trip to Moscow, where the CIA had monitored the US delegationwas incensed that Seeger had gone to China against official "advice." The authorities had already warned her that her passport would be impounded, effectively barring her from further travel, were she to return to the USA. She therefore decided to tour Europelater 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
, 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. MacColl and Seeger were later married (in 1977), following his divorce from Newlove, and 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 Peggy Seeger, and also featured Ewan MacColl. The film was directed and produced by John Goldschmidt for ATV and shown on ITV in the UK.
, 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". 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 – 1983). She visited the women's camp at 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.
, 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.
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.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folksinger
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. She is also well known in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, where she lived for more than 30 years with her husband, singer and songwriter Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
.
The first American period
Seeger's father was Charles SeegerCharles Seeger
Charles Seeger, Jr. was a noted musicologist, composer, and teacher. He was the father of iconic American folk singer Pete Seeger .-Life:...
(1886–1979), an important folklorist and musicologist; her mother was Seeger's second wife, Ruth Porter Crawford (1901–1953), a modernist composer who was one of the first women to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. One of her brothers was Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, mouth harp, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary...
and the well-known Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
is her half-brother. One of Peggy Seeger's 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
Children's song
Children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that young children invent and share among themselves, or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home, or education...
s ever recorded.
In the 1950s, left-leaning singers such as Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
and The Weavers
The Weavers
The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City. They sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs, labor songs, and American ballads, and selling millions of records at the height of their...
began to find that life became difficult because of the influence of McCarthyism
McCarthyism
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term has its origins in the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by...
. Seeger visited Communist China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and as a result had her U.S. passport withdrawn; the US State Departmentwhich had been opposed to Seeger's trip to Moscow, where the CIA had monitored the US delegationwas incensed that Seeger had gone to China against official "advice." The authorities had already warned her that her passport would be impounded, effectively barring her from further travel, were she to return to the USA. She therefore decided to tour Europelater finding out that she was on a blacklist sent to European governments. Staying in London in 1956, she was accompanying herself on banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, when Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...
fell in love with her. Previously married to director and actress Joan Littlewood
Joan Littlewood
Joan Maud Littlewood was a British theatre director, noted for her work in developing the left-wing Theatre Workshop...
, 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
Alex Campbell (singer)
Alex Campbell was a Scottish folk singer. Described by Colin Harper as a "melancholic, hard-travelling Glaswegian", he was influential in the British folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s and was one of the first folk singers to tour the UK and Europe...
, 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. MacColl and Seeger were later married (in 1977), following his divorce from Newlove, and 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
Folkways Records
Folkways Records was a record label founded by Moses Asch that documented folk, world, and children's music. It was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1987, and is now part of Smithsonian Folkways.-History:...
, 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 Peggy 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 GroupThe Critics Group
The Critics Group, also known as The London Critics Group, was a group of people who met to explore 'how best to apply the techniques of folk-music and drama to the folk revival' under the direction of Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, with some participation from Bert Lloyd and Charles Parker...
, 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
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" is a 1957 folk song written by British political singer/songwriter Ewan MacColl for Peggy Seeger, who was later to become his wife. At the time the couple were lovers, although MacColl was married to someone else. MacColl and Seeger included the song in their...
" 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". There were two major projects dedicated to the Child Ballads
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...
. The first was The Long Harvest (10 volumes 1966 - 1975). The second was Blood and Roses (5 volumes, 1979 – 1983). She visited the women's camp at Greenham Common
RAF Greenham Common
RAF Station Greenham Common is a former military airfield in Berkshire, England. The airfield is located approximately south-southwest of Thatcham; about west of London....
, where protests against U.S. cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
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 UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, 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
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. 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
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, 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.
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.
Solo albums
- - Folksongs of Courting and Complaint (1955)
- - Animal Folksongs for Children (1957)
- - Folksongs and Ballads (1957)
- - Two Way Trip (1961)
- - Peggy Alone (1967)
- - Penelope Isn't Waiting Anymore (1977)
- - Different Therefore Equal (1979)
- - The Folkways Years 1955 - 1992 - Songs of Love and Politics (1992)
- - Familiar Faces (1993)
- - Songs of Love and Politics (1994)
- - Love Will Linger On (1995)
- - An Odd Collection (1996)
- - Classic Peggy Seeger (1996)
- - Period Pieces (1998)
- - No Spring Chickens (1998)
- - Almost Commercially Viable (2000)
- - Heading For Home (2003)
- - Love Call Me Home (2005)
- - Bring Me Home (2008)
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
- - New Briton Gazette, Vol. 1 (1960)
- - The Unfortunate Rake (1960)
- - Songs of Two Rebellions (1960)
- - Popular Scottish Songs (1961)
- - Bothy Ballads of Scotland (1961)
- - Two-Way Trip (1961)
- - New Briton Gazette, Vol. 2 (1962)
- - Traditional Songs and Ballads (1964)
- - At The Present Moment (1972)
- - Folkways Record of Contemporary Songs (1973)
- - Cold Snap (1978)
- - Hot Blast (1978)
- - Saturday Night at the Bull and Mouth (1978)
- - Kilroy was Here (1980)
Mike and Peggy Seeger
- - American Folk Songs for Children (1955)
- - American Folk Songs Sung by the Seegers (1957)
- - Peggy 'n' Mike (1967)
- - American Folk Songs for Christmas (1990)
- - Fly Down Little Bird (2011)
Peggy Seeger and the Critics Group, including Frankie Armstrong
- - The Female Frolic (1967)
- - Living Folk (1970)
Collaboration
- 1964: Who's Going to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot (UK version); US version by Tom Paley and Peggy Seeger with Claudia Paley
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 9780-745-32165-3 (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
- Official site
- Biography from Appleseed Music
- Thesis Publication on Peggy Seeger
- TheBanjoMan.com Peggy Seeger Page
- Peggy Seeger's YouTube Page
- How Can I Keep From Singing?: A Seeger Family Tribute, Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, American Folklife CenterAmerican Folklife CenterThe American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife" . The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music...
, March 2007 symposium and concert. All events are available as webcasts via the site. Retrieved August 25, 2009.