Pete Seeger onstage at a 2009 rally in Memorial Park, Nyack, N.Y. (© 2009, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)
Pete Seeger is dead.
The legendary musician, environmentalist, and activist, a longtime resident of Beacon, N.Y., died Monday at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, The New York Times reports.
His death comes six months after his wife, Toshi, died just short of their 70th wedding anniversary.
He continued to work after Toshi’s death, appearing in September at a Farm Aid Concert in Saratoga Springs, reports Peter Kramer of The Journal News in a wonderful obituary posted on lohud.com. (Be sure to check out the great video on lohud.com, including this raw footage of a rambling interview at Seeger’s Beacon home.
Many thanks, also, to Kramer for posting a wonderful Seeger playlist.
http://open.spotify.com/user/121496348/playlist/5pyMPlYPbhd8OgJ6TPJ0D8
Pete Seeger is still carrying his own gear – at 90 years of age! (© 2009, Steven P. Marsh/willyoumissme.com)
People who came of age in 1970 or later, especially those raised in or near the Hudson Valley, may know Seeger best as the environmental activist behind the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater and the Great Clearwater Revival festival or the environmental organization bearing the sloop’s name. (A word of caution: clearwater.org was getting heavy traffic after the news of Seeger’s death broke, so you can expect to have trouble logging onto the site.)
But he was an integral is rekindling a national interest in folk music. His attenuated voice and banjo became a fixture on national radio beginning in the 1940s.
Seeger’s presence will be missed, but death won’t silence his voice.
Peace.
Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? 