Pete Seeger, American folk singer and activist

•DIANE BARTZPete Seeger, who helped create the modern American folk music movement, co-wrote enduring songs like ‘If I Had a Hammer’ and became a leading voice for social justice, died on Monday at the age of 94.

He was hailed in social and traditional media as a ‘hero’, ‘America’s conscience’ and ‘a man of the people’.

Seeger was well known for his liberal politics. He protested US wars from Vietnam to Iraq, participated in the civil rights movement, supported organised labour and helped found an environmental group that played a key role in cleaning up the polluted Hudson River.

In 1961, he was sentenced to prison for refusing to testify to Congress about his time in the Communist Party.

Nearly a half-century later, Seeger performed at a January 2009 concert marking the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

“He believed in the power of community – to stand up for what’s right, speak out against what’s wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be,” Obama said in a statement. “For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger.”

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore recalled on Twitter how in October 2011 he was on a street in New York and saw Seeger leading an impromptu protest march.

“Pete Seeger. What can I say. He said it and sang it and lived it all,” Moore tweeted.

“Like a ripple that keeps going out from a pond, Mr Seeger’s music will keep going out all over the world spreading the message of non-violence and peace and justice and equality for all,” Jim Musselman of Appleseed Recordings said in a statement.

Seeger and another folk music icon, Woody Guthrie, started the Almanac Singers in the early 1940s. In 1949, Seeger helped found another key folk group, the Weavers. Those groups opened the way for Bob Dylan and another generation of folk music singer/songwriters in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Early Years

The Weavers had a No 1 hit with a version of blues and folk musician Lead Belly’s ‘Good Night, Irene’ and by 1952 the group had sold more than four million records. The members soon drifted apart, however, after being blacklisted for links to the Communist Party. Seeger and Lee Hays wrote ‘If I Had a Hammer’ for the Weavers, along with the hit ‘So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You’.

Seeger also wrote the modern classic ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ with lyrics from the Bible’s Ecclesiastes and ‘Where Have All the Flowers Gone’ with Joe Hickerson.

Seeger, born on May 3 1919 in Patterson, New York, was the son of two teachers at the famed Juilliard School of Music – his father an ethnomusicologist and his mother a violinist.

He became interested in folk music through his father, who directed family friend Aaron Copland to the music of West Virginia coal miners, resulting in the classical music works ‘Appalachian Spring’ and ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’.

In 1938, Seeger dropped out of Harvard University and took his banjo on the road. During his travels, he met Guthrie at a benefit concert for California migrant farm workers.

Seeger’s career was derailed in 1951 when a book listed the Weavers as Communists. During the next year, the group’s record company dropped them and they were refused radio, television and concert appearances.

Seeger had been a Communist Party member but left around 1950. Still, he refused to answer questions from the US House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, was prosecuted and sentenced to a year in jail in 1961.

The conviction was overturned on appeal.

The singer won two Grammy awards for best traditional folk albums for ‘Pete’ and ‘At 89’, and another for best musical album for children for ‘Tomorrow’s Children’. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1993.

In 2007, Springsteen won the best traditional folk Grammy for ‘We Shall Overcome – The Seeger Sessions’, a collection of songs popularised by Seeger. – Nampa-Reuters

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.