Mike Seeger....RIP

[LouieB]

The No Depression listerv just announced Mike Seeger died at age 75. While Mike is certainly less famous than his half brother Pete, he certainly was important in folk and folklore circles, both for finding and promoting long lost folk artists and also for his band the New Lost City Ramblers which promoted older songs and song styles. Sad day.

 

LouieB

[bigshoulders]

Dylan on M. Seeger:

 

"Sometimes you know things have to change. . . . Somebody holds the mirror up, unlocks the door and your head has to go into a different place," Dylan wrote in his 2004 memoir, "Chronicles: Volume One." "Mike Seeger had that effect on me. He played on all the various planes, the full index of the old-time styles, [and] he played these songs as good as it was possible to play them. What I had to work at, Mike already had in his genes."

[HungryHippo]

awesome words from Dylan. didn't Mike Seeger seek out Elizabeth Cotten and record her before she passed away? never heard the guy perform but by actively going out of his way to preserve the sounds from a gone era makes him a great guy in my book.

[LouieB]

awesome words from Dylan. didn't Mike Seeger seek out Elizabeth Cotten and record her before she passed away? never heard the guy perform but by actively going out of his way to preserve the sounds from a gone era makes him a great guy in my book.

I don't know for sure about Cotten, but he did find Dock Boggs and a number of blues folks. It was the New Lost City Ramblers version of No Depression that Uncle Tupelo copped for their first record.

 

LouieB

[calvino]

awesome words from Dylan. didn't Mike Seeger seek out Elizabeth Cotten and record her before she passed away? never heard the guy perform but by actively going out of his way to preserve the sounds from a gone era makes him a great guy in my book.

 

It appears so.

 

Found link on Expecting Rain.

 

from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/08/i_had_never_heard_of.html

 

Remembering 'Libba'

 

As Mike Seeger tells the story, his mother was shopping at a department store in downtown Washington, her three children in tow, when his sister, Peggy Seeger, wandered off. Libba Cotten, who was selling dolls at the department store, happened to bring her back.

 

It's important to the story to know that Mike Seeger's parents, Ruth Crawford Seeger and Charles Seeger, were both prominent musicologists. The two women, Seeger and Cotten, got acquainted, and Ruth Seeger offered Libba Cotten a job as a housekeeper. Cotten accepted and worked 12-hour days, Mike Seeger recalled. Hearing all the music in the Seeger house and noticing all the instruments lying around, she happened to pick up a guitar and play -- for the first time in maybe 50 years.

 

Mike Seeger, who had begun making tape recordings of traditional musicians in the Washington area, heard Cotten and persuaded her to let him make a tape. That tape led to a new career for Cotten at age 60, when she was a grandmother. The Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, Taj Mahal and Peter, Paul and Mary all recorded her music and she appeared around the world, with performances at Carnegie Hall and on TV. She won a Grammy in 1985 for her album, "Elizabeth Cotten Live!"

 

LIbba Cotten died in 1987. She was 97. Here's Mike Seeger performing her classic "Freight Train."

[LouieB]

It appears so.

 

Found link on Expecting Rain.

 

from http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/08/i_had_never_heard_of.html

Very cool story. Thanks for that; I had never heard that story.

 

I saw Libba Cotten at the Old Town School (when it was on Armitage) sometime in the late 1970s or early 80s. Cotten was well up in years and the crowd loved her. She played all her "hits" (all two of them) and a bunch more songs, all of which were fairly similar and then replayed the hits and literally would not get off stage. It was like this was her last show ever and she didn't want it to end. It was one of those wonderful, but slightly awkward moments.

 

I was also lucky enough to see the New Lost City Ramblers at the new OTS. This was more recently (within the last decade or so) and all of the members were a bit up in years and the performance was uneven, but it was still a thrill to see them.

 

LouieB